Night Is Long
by PipeLad
Summary: Harry is fed up, and on the run from the Ministry and Dumbledore. Finding his way to an elite new school he is faced with new magics, new species, and confronted with the problem of who he is at his center. No real pairings as of yet, unlikely to be any. Will be rated M in the future, rated M now to be safe. New School. Vampire Harry. No slash. Heavy influence by Miranda Flairgold.
1. Prologue

This is my very first story, well really the Prologue to my very first story. I own very little of this, credit goes to J.K. Rowling. Also credit to Miranda Flairgold and her amazing stories, they influence this story hugely, as you will be able to tell. Please review with any thoughts you have, positive or negative I really appreciate the feedback. Fair warning my grammar can be spotty at best and downright atrocious at worst. Stick with this story, it'll be a wild ride.

From the inky darkness lightning flashed dangerously, the worst storm the town had seen in years. The townsfolk, magical and muggle alike were shutting their shudders and doors, and raising what wards they could, none of them had ever seen such a violent, black storm pop up so quickly. Halloween in Godric's Hollow was suddenly split from a peaceful holiday to a violent downpour.

But one Felix Drakul, an ancient vampire, and only surviving member of the House Drakul, knew better. He was an accomplished Necromancer, among many other talents, he had almost by himself modernized and improved the art of Necromancy, and he knew death magic when he felt it. He had been in England for about ten months, seducing the local women, and sampling the blood of England, but more importantly, he was working on some very important projects. He had come close to taking one on as a slave, but had decided against it on that he would rather not start another vampire/wizard war.

He had been also working on some of his own private projects, and on the side he had been tracking down some stray death magic he had been sensing, but with little to show for his admittably half assed efforts. That is he had little luck up until thirty four seconds ago. Thirty four seconds ago he had felt the single largest spike of wild death magic since the whole fiasco with the Elves in 500 A.D.

He had immediately secured his project and his tent, where he was staying as he camped all throughout England, and apparated to the scene. He easily waded his way through the cloud of death magic that was visibly decaying the trees and plants, and began to siphon all of it into a special death magic containment cube, for later examination. He tracked the cloud to it's very center, and went into the partially blown up, slightly decaying house, which was taking the brunt of the damage from the death magic.

He went up the stairs very carefully, his ornate wand always casting spells and charms to try and decipher the meaning of it all. He stopped dead in his tracks upon reaching the baby blue door labelled "Harry's Room." Entering the room he saw a beautiful redheaded woman on the floor, obviously dead, yet somehow she looked vaguely familiar. He felt an incredibly strong magical core, very strong ties to death magic, and even ties to bloodmagic all coming from the toddler in the crib, who's life was slipping away to fuel the storm. As the little infants magic slipped by him Felix couldn't help but notice a hint of other magic coming off of the baby, Harry, he presumed. It was very similar to his own magic that he was feeling, eerily so.

Tucking away that tidbit of knowledge Felix knew he had to save this baby, he had simply too much potential to let go to waste. He severed the magical link from the baby to the storm, that was draining away young Harrys life, but soon saw it was not enough. Too much of Harry's life force had slipped away.

Felix had only one option, to turn the little babe into a vampire, which should be simple despite the slight vampiric magic already radiating off of the child, mostly hidden by the rolling waves of residual death magic. Felix was able to see the small strands of vampiric magic by activating his bloodmagic runes carved into his eyeballs and eyelids, enabling him to see the ebbing flow of the death magic, and the small, constant trickle of vampiric magic.

Using the fangs present in all vampires Felix sliced a deep cut into his finger, having to consciously disable his natural healing abilites, and deactivating his extensive healing bloodmagic work. He let the wee baby Harry suckle on his finger, ingesting the blood of the ancient. Searching out his magic in his blood that was in Harry he sent a magical signal to attack the regular, healthy blood cells, and turn them into vampiric cells.

This was a rather dangerous thing to do to an infant, but very commonplace in vampire culture. The baby had to be magically very strong, either that or ridiculously lucky. Among the older vampire clans it was not uncommon for the babies with the most potential to be given a single sip of Felix Filicis before the turning.

Harry had no such luck, but despite massive magical exhaustion and slight magical trauma, he still had large enough reserves to counter the vampirism ever so slightly, allowing his litle infant body the precious seconds it needed to adjust to the sudden change.

This whole process took just a little over five minutes for Felix, from first sensing the death magic to turning little Harry. Felix had set up some rudimentary wards upon his arrival, but the massive amount of death magic had reached the sensitive death magic detectors in the office of one Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore, head of the wizengamot, headmaster of Hogwarts, among other titles, was nearing his one hundredth and eleventh birthday. Hr had set up his own delicate, and very secret wards over the Potter residence at Godrics Hollow, but these wards were merely detection wards and alert wards, with no defensive or offensive capabilities at all.

Magically feeling all of the Potter wards snap Dumbledore heaved a great sigh, it had begun, the end of the war, for now, and the beginning of a long, tough, life for Harry James Potter. Dumbledore had no way of knowing that he received the signal five minuted after he should have, but he gathered all of his magic to him, just in case, and apparated to Godrics's Hollow.

In the split second time it takes for apparation to occur Felix sensed a massive magical core incoming, and made the split second decision to return to his esoteric projects, and he would be able to return later and retrieve the child.

Dumbledore arrived as Felix left, Elder Wand at the ready, on full alert. Scanning the room he saw the still body of Lily Potter in front of the crib. Closing his weary eyes he had a private moment of silence for Lily, and he was sure James was dead downstairs, for James too. Walking over to the crib he examined the green eyed, black haired heir to House Potter. Twirling his wand in an intricate pattern, a complex diagnostic charm that would automatically relay any diseases present in Harry straight into his mind, and would project an image of Harrys body and any injuries Dumbledore received the shock of his life,

He couldn't believe it! Harry Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World, Champion of the Light, was a vampire! A damn vampire! Recasting the charm several times, along with half a dozen other charms he had no choice but to accept the reality of it all.

He knew what had to be done, and that it had to be done very quickly. He grabbed little Harry, and apparated straight into his office. The next part he would never forgive himself for, but he knew that he had to do it, for the Greater Good of the Wizarding World. He apparated to the dungeons of Hogwarts and grabbed a young Death Eater, who had been captured by the Order not too long ago. Taking the small baby, and the unconscious man into the hidden ritual room attached to his office Dubldedore quickly and efficiently drew the runes in chalk, ash, and blood that were necessary for this old, very nearly forgotten ritual.

Chanting in long forgotten languages, and twirling his wand Dumbledore produced a razor sharp ritual knife, and slid it across the young Death Eater's throat, spilling out his lifeblood all over the room, and everyone in it. Finishing his chant, and beginning to weave dozens of other enchantments, charms, and spells into the ritual that would make it ridiculously powerful and durable Dumbledore cast the final spell, pushing all of the magic he possibly could into it, even accessing magic he had stored in his office, and sealed the Ritual of Binding. The Ritual had to be very powerful in order to bind the knowledge in Dumbledore's soul, and to subtly remove it from the vampire that turned him. And thus Harry Potter was a vampire, but his vampirism was bound and sealed into the very depths of his soul. Unknown to everyone involved the vampirism now in Harry's soul discovered the portion of Voldemort's soul, and locked it away, feeding off of it, and letting it replenish ever so slightly to feed on it again.

Dumbledore then downed multiple Replenishing Potions and some Pepper-Ups to reinvigorate himself to take Harry to his relatives. Dropping Harry off on the doorstep he returned to Hogwarts, and contemplated his next move, and pondering just how the hell had Harry become vampire. Felix Drakul, on the other hand had almost totally forgotten about Harry, due to the subtle Fidelius Charm worked into Harry's bloodmagic by Dumbledore. Felix wemt back to his project, and two months later he had moved onto another stage of the project, this time in south east Asia.


	2. Chapter 1

Again I own nothing except original content. J.K. Rowling owns this stuff, and Miranda Flairgold inspired it. Read and Review please.

This story picks up as many others do, especially the ones covering this young mans life so far. It was a hot summer day, about noon, and our hero was working in the garden. This is a regular activity for him, he had been doing it everyday for as long as he could remember until That day. The day young Hadrian, usually called "Harry" or "Boy!" Potter received his Hogwarts Letter. He took to magic, and magic took to him. He studied many different subjects, yet still never coming close to even scraping the surface of magical knowledge. He would study nearly everyday, usually at night time in the library. He had to hide his studies because of his abusive relatives, who would beat him for doing better than his non-magical cousin, Dudley.

Young Harry went on many adventures during his years at school. His first year he saved the famous Sorcerers Stone from the clutches of Voldemort, the evil wizard who murdered Harrys parents. In the hospital wing afterwards he had even kept the famous stone, secreting it away in his trunk in a false bottom he had discovered. His second year he rescued Ginevra Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets, slaying a thousand year old Basilisk in the process. By doing that he once again escaped and thwarted the plans of Voldemort. His third year was plagued with trouble and fear. The infamous Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban. He was reportedly going after Harry, in order to finish the job he started when he sold Harrys parents to Voldemort. This came to a head when Harry and his close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and his professor Remus Lupin confronted Black. They discovered his innocence, except Black was not believed and had to go back on the run after another daring escape.

This leads us to the fourth year of the not so young Harry Potter. He was selected as the Fourth Champion in the TriWizard Tournament. His selection as champion, despite being too young, laid the first cracks in the foundation of his friendship with Ron Weasley. Never the less, Harry competed admirably and bravely through all the tasks, facing dragons, mermen, and a potentially lethal maze. The final challenge of the Tournament saw Harry kidnapped along with Cedric Diggory. Cedric was brutally cut down in front of Harry, while Harry was used in a ritual to bring back Lord Voldemort, who was supposedly quite dead. Yet the Wizarding World is as a flock of sheep, and they listened not to the truth, but to what they wanted to hear. Harry and Dumbledore were not believed when they spoke out. Dumbledore even lost many prestigious positions in the Wizarding World that he had held for decades.

Harry then spent the summer at his relatives house, much like he is now, and then returns to Hogwarts for his fifth year of schooling. He was a true leader among the students, organizing Defense Against the Dark Arts classes because of the incompetence of the teacher. Harry had visions of Lord Voldemort through the whole year, until during an exam they came to a head. He saw his godfather Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic. He gathered his closest and bravest friends and set forth on yet another daring rescue mission. During the battle a shelf full of Time Turners was knocked over. This is the exact moment in Harry Potters' life where everything started to go wrong. Ginevra Weasley, or Ginny, was caught underneath the falling shelves, along with one Gregory Goyle Sr. They were both trapped under the shelves and as the Sands of Time sprinkled down on them they aged at an exponential rate. The bystanders saw them whither away and die.

This, along with the death of Sirius, the only true family Harry had left left Harry as a guilt ridden, emotional wreck. This also brings us up to the present time. Harry was taking a quick break from the harsh work and was wiping his brow when he saw two black spots approaching in the sky. He watched the two post owls fly over and took each letter. One had the neat script of Albus Dumbledore and the other had the Ministry of Magic seal upon it.  
Deciding to stop his gardening (Consequences be damned!) he went up to his room to read the letters. As he read the letter from the ministry he could not believe his eyes. He muttered as he read  
"Dear ... Informing you of your trial that has taken place last Monday."  
"What bloody trial!?"  
"You have been convicted of one count of Murder of a Pureblood Witch, one count of Murder of a Pureblood Lord, and Use of an Unforgiveable. You are hereby expelled from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A squad of Aurors is being deployed to apprehend you. You have ten minutes to say goodbye to your family and organize a will or last wishes. Leaving the property automatically increases the sentence from Life in Azkaban to Dementors Kiss immediately upon capture."  
Harry, mind kicking into over drive, immediately ripped open Dumbledores letter and speed read it. Dumbledore just said that Hogwarts is always open for those in need, and "Remember your third year summer, my boy."

Harry was perplexed. His third year summer? He had inflated his Aunt Marge, and ran away from home, taking the Knight Bus...The Knight Bus! He had to take the Knight Bus, but Hogwarts is always open... Dumbledore wanted him to take the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade! Harry looked at the clock, he only had seven minutes to leave the only house and family behind, and that suited him just fine. He grabbed his wand, put a shirt on, and grabbed his trunk, that he always kept packed just in case he had to run away again. He opened up his owls' cage and told her to fly on to The Burrow, where the Weasley clan could take care of her. He yelled at his only family, telling them he was leaving, never to return and only then realized he was home alone. Even better for him, he thought as he walked to the side walk and stuck out his wand. The triple decker Knight Bus appeared after a second with Stan Shunpike opening the door.

2 Galleons, and 20 minutes later and Harry was standing on the Hogsmeade train station, peering down the long path to take him on to Hogwarts. It was just starting to get dark as he set forth. By the time he reached the front gate it was nearly pitch black outside. He tried and tried but the gate would not move, and no one could hear him. The stress of the whole situation got to him as he realized that if he was caught he would be given the Dementors Kiss immediately. He started to realize how Dumbledore knew he would be here and possibly just wanted to capture Harry, make it seem like he had run away (which he had) and have Harry given the Kiss. Harry knew that it would be a thousand times harder to track his magical signature in the Foridden Forest, even if he cast any spells.

And so, our brave hero, Harry Potter sets forth into the dark and dangerous forest and unknowkinngly seals his destiny. He takes the first steps on a path to power, a path to greatness. After all Voldemort did great things, too. Terrible, but great.


	3. Chapter 2

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

And with that very thought the 16 year old Wizard lit his holly and Phoenix wand with a muttered "Lumos" and set off in search of some shelter. He only had to walk for about twenty minutes before he found a small cave. He knew that is was dangerous to explore caves, especially at night, especially in the Forbidden Forest. But he barely registered those thoughts and went on inside the cave. He thoroughly checked it out, found no creatures and some good sticks for a small fire to keep him warm through the night. He pulled out his previously shrunken chest and enlarged it to the correct size, pulled out his invisibility cloak, some robes and re-shrunk the chest. He put the chest back in his pocket, used the robes as a makeshift pillow and tossed the invisibility cloak over himself as a thin blanket and some concealment. He cast a warming charm over himself, and decided against lighting a fire that night. Harry fell asleep with thoughts of confusion and betrayal running rampant in his mind.

Harry was woken up to a slight hissing sound and rays of sunlight hitting his face. He looked up and saw a quite venomous Magical Viper, with a sleek midnight black body and golden markings along its side, in front of him. It was not quite fully grown, only about two feet long at this point. He hissed a short conversation with it, and found out its name was "Cygnus" and that Cygnus was willing to become his familiar, because he had never met a snake speaker and wanted to learn more and have a more permanent home. Harry accepted him as a familiar, and in a flash of light the deed was done. Cygnus coiled himself on Harrys shoulder as Harry sat and thought about what to do. He knew, from Cygnus, that somewhere in the Forest a pipe connected to a large chamber. He assumed this meant the Chamber of Secrets. After about a half hour of thought and quiet meditation Harry had made up his mind. He would search the Forest until he found a way into the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry knew that this would mean he would have to live in the Forest. He couldn't afford to show his face and be captured. He doubted he could escape a squad of Aurors or Hit Wizards. And so Harry went off into the forest, always staying in his cave at night and gathering food and exploring during the day. Cygnus was an invaluable guide the whole time, and Harry and Cygnus had no luck for many months. The first full moon saw Harry and Cygnus hiding in the cave, which by now had a small fire pit, small potions corner, and cot set up, with a large boulder that could be levitated to seal the entrance. Harry just had to make sure he used air refreshening charms often enough. He would every night and everyday read his old books and practice the magic from them. He had no real concept of time except for day and night. He estimated he had been in the forest about six full moons when IT happened.

He had quite literally ran into Luna Lovegood. He must have looked quite frightening, covered in mud and sticks, and smelling like the devil himself. Yet Luna did not care. She only cared to make sure that Harry knew not to blame himself for Ginny and Cedric, but sometimes he couldn't help it. He had made her promise to not tell anyone he was hiding in the Forest. He began having quick meetings with Luna every two weeks. She brought him food and occasionally a book. On their last meeting before she left on summer break her eyes had glazed over for a bit and she had told Harry to  
"Beware the Six-Limbed"  
and to  
"Watch the trees."  
Normally she would say something odd and Harry would disregard it. But this time seemed different somehow. He had no idea what the warning meant. He had lived in the Forest almost a year now, based on what Luna had said. He had missed his seventeenth birthday and he hadn't cared at all. He had had no trouble with the other creatures in the Forest, which while odd he didn't mind at all, he had plenty of conversations with Luna and the snakes and Cygnus to keep him as sane as possible.

It was the anniversary of his coming to the forest, yet he had no way of knowing that. He was currently running for his life, with arrows thunking into the tree trunks right behind him and whizzing by his head. He should have taken Luna's warning more seriously. How could he not have know that the Six Limbed Ones were the Centaurs of the Forest. And the Forest Elves were hiding in the trees, firing arrows and basic spells at him and the centaurs as they continued their chase through the Forest. Panting, having lost the Centaurs for the time being he slowed down and hid behind a tree. He could hear Cygnus telling him to run for the Hogwarts wards. Harry wasn't sure how much good that would do, but he made a run for it anyways. He was within sight of the tree line, still dodging tree roots, arrows and more spells from the Centaurs, each arrow getting closer to hitting its mark. He was just a few meters short of safety when one of the poison tipped arrows found his left hamstring muscles. Harry, with Cygnus around his neck went crashing to the ground, Harry hissing out curses in Parseltongue. He had taken to mainly speaking Parseltongue due to his familiar, and only spoke English when Luna would visit He closed his eyes and expected to feel the cold, hard ground hit his face any second, but he only heard a sliding noise. His world exploded in pain as the arrow in his leg was jarred while sliding down a tunnel, but through all the pain he had but one thought,  
"I've done it! I've found the Chamber of Secrets!"

He was definitely in the Chamber of Secrets, he just had no way of telling where exactly. The tunnel had deposited him in a large pile of rat bones and snake skin. He had gathered the old snake skin, sensing the decaying magic in it and wondering if it could be used in a potion. During his year in the Forest he had compulsively gathered all ingredients for potions or anything remotely edible. Life in the Forest had been rough, but never excessively terrible, right up until he somehow pissed off the Forest Elves, and the Centaurs. Speaking of the Centaurs he could hear one of them, Bane? Yelling and stomping his hooves at the top of the securely warded tunnel. Harry had a little rest at the base before crawling and limping down the tunnel as best as he could. He limped down the tunnel for at least twenty minutes, only putting the best preserved snake skins that still retained their magic in his bag. He was physically and magically exhausted by the time he reached the end of the tunnel. He was in the huge room with the statue of Salazar Slytherin and the dead Basilisk. The Basilisk looked like it hadn't decayed a single bit, and it truly had not. The powerful magic of the snake was holding it together, aided by the powerful Parselmagic wards that covered the whole chamber, top, bottom, and side to side. Harry, having had enough of limping around decided to go ahead and attempt to fix his leg. He broke off the arrow, and tried to pull it out twice feeling nothing but searing pain. He stuck a strip of cloth in his mouth and grabbed his wand, setting bandages nearby. He gathered what magic he had not spent trying to raise rudimentary wards around his cave that morning, and summoned the arrow out of his leg. Through blinding, white hot pain he felt the arrow leave his leg and he clamped his hands on the wound, and wrapped the bandages around it.

The pain and exhaustion he felt were overwhelmed by waves of curiosity as he tried to find a good place to sleeping the chamber. He pulled his bloodied hand along the wall as he read the Parselscript carvings, that he had not known he could read. He hissed out "SS Chamber of Ssssecretsss Time Disssstortion Field Activatesss. SS" before he could comprehend what he was reading and saying the wall and floor absorbed the blood he already had spilt, and a strong, aristocratic, masculine voice was projected "Poison detected in blood. Time Distortion Field activated. In one year this chamber will rejoin time, exactly the second after the TDF was activated." Head swimming, eyes shut tight with pain, and head pounding with the pain of an oncoming migraine Harry Potter hit the floor of the Chamber of Secrets in a dead faint. He had unknowingly travelled farther down the path away from the Light Wizard that Albus Dumbledore had hoped for when young Harry was born. While he was asleep the more personal protective Parsel wards activated and began filtering the poison from his blood, only to find that they were largely unneeded as Harry's blood locked the poison within itself magically, much as it had done to slow and eventually contain the Basilisk venom.

Harry Potter woke up on the cold, hard stone of the floor in the Chamber of Secrets, ears ringing with the words of the voice from the night before. 'Who did that voice belong to? Why am I here? Time Distortion Field? Was that Blood Magic last night?' He had a thousand questions that were all disregarded as he saw the spot on the ground where he had saved Ginny Weasley from death just a few short years ago. But she still died, and it was his fault. He vaguely felt his knees hit the cold stone of the Chamber as he felt his eyes burn with the sting of unfallen tears, while his very soul stung with the pain of regret, and the pain of guilt. He let his tears fall, his tears for Ginny, for Sirius, for Ron, for Hermione, for all of his friends that he was unsure if he could ever see again, and for those he KNEW he couldn't see again. During his time in the Forest he had never allowed himself to properly grieve, and he knew that now was the best time to get it out of his system, to let it out before he could bottle it up again.

Eventually he stood up, and with a fire in his belly and even in his soul itself, he was determined to learn new magic that would allow him to protect himself from the Ministry of Magic, and to at least disguise himself enough to go out in public. And the thing he was most determined to do was the most important of all: defeat the half-blood Tom Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as he preferred to go by, the Darkest of all Dark Lords to have ever lived, or so Voldemort thought of himself. From conversations with Dumbledore Harry knew that Riddle had done mass experiments with Necromancy, lots of Blood Magic and many Rituals. Dumbledore was even afraid that Riddle had dabbled in Black Magick. Black Magick was magic so dark, vile, and evil that a single curse could level a town, at the sacrifice of part of the casters very soul. The soul was a very delicate thing, and to sacrifice some to Black Magick was to gain a spell or enchantment with an enormous degree of power, the trick to Black Magick was learning incredible control and restraint, and only giving up the slightest part of your soul. If you gave too much it would never replenish and you would die a very painful death.

Harry set off to explore the Chamber. Still limping from the magical residue of the poison in his leg, and how sore it was, he was happy that he had appeared to make a full recovery, with just a scar to remember the wound by. Cygnus had gone off exploring and hunting the night before and was yet to return. He knew that by now the Ministry had put up wanted posters for him, no doubt a massive price on his head. He hoped Dumbledore was not in trouble in case the Aurors found the letter from him on his desk. Thinking of Dumbledore only made Harry question his motives even more, and decided again that he had made the right choice with running into the Forest. Harry was not stupid, no way, he knew that if he wanted to venture out into the world at large again he would need a new name. He was already thinking of ways to disguise himself, and he had a new name in mind: Markus Black. He knew that some people might be able to put it together but he thought it would, once complete, be able to withstand a fair amount of scrutiny. Especially after he underwent the training he was planning, and washed up from his yearlong stay in the forest and decided exactly how he would present himself to the world.

Markus was poking around the base of the Salazar Slytherin statue hissing "SS Open SS" every few feet to try and locate a hidden room, or study, or wherever that voice had come from the night before. He eventually ran his hand down the stone and felt a large slippery, mass of magic on the other side, and immediately opened it by hissing in Parseltongue. Inside was another short tunnel that branched off to the left about five meters in, and to the right a couple of meters after that. He carefully explored the whole area with his wand at the ready. He found a luxurious bedroom with bathroom, a study (complete with huge desk, and a sleeping portrait, and hundreds of books) a potions laboratory, some sort of Ritual Room, a kitchen and eating room, a small dueling room with targets, and something named a "Heir Room." Markus decided to start in the "Heir Room." Going through the door he saw a dark green bed that seemed to be carved from one solid piece of wood and a desk with nearby bookshelves filled with books, notes, journals, and even old copies of the Daily Prophet. Harry was shocked as he picked up the first book he saw on the desk and read the title though he should have expected it, that the first book he picked up read "A Survey of Magical Schools and Institues, by Tom Riddle." Markus immediately dropped the book, but picked it up once again when he sensed no evil intent on the journal.


	4. Chapter 3

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

The first page spoke of how Hogwarts gave an all around okay education, Beauxbatons gave a slightly worse education, and that Durmstrang gave the best out of the three. The next few pages were about the Russian Institute of Sorcery and the South American Academy of Alchemy. But the second to last entry was by far the most interesting. The school was called the North American Academy of the Arcane. A cutthroat school located in the mid west of the United States filled with fierce classes, fiercer students (all types of magical creatures) and yet fiercer professors. The school taught ALL types of magic, including Blood Magic, and Necromancy, both of which Markus will need to know in order to defeat Voldemort. It was that moment that Markus Black decided he would be attending The Academy for his magical education.

The minimum age of The Academy was 18, so Markus was a year off. Another bit of information that caught his eye was that the school was built on a so called "Magical Reservation" and that the Reservation had all sorts of creatures and magic users on it's land. By this point Cygnus had returned, and was talking with Harry, now Markus, about what to do.  
"SS Harry you should go to thisss new ssschool. SS" hissed the now four foot long serpent.  
"SS I think I will Cygnusss, and I'll ssspend a year on the ressservation like we did in the foressst. And don't forget, it's Markus "

Having made up his mind, but still being stuck in the Chamber of Secrets for a year he decided to go back to the study he saw earlier and go through some of the books in the shelf behind the desk. He sensed very dark and old magic from some of the books, and he put those to the side. Others he could sense Parselmagic from, and those had their own pile. Eventually he was able to sort the books into piles, with ritual magic and blood magic sharing a pile due to being closely related. Potion books had their own pile, as did dark magic, and random books with offensive and defensive spells in them.

Suddenly feeling very sore and hungry Markus went to the kitchen he had seen earlier and found a huge pantry full of food for the year long stay. He prepared some food and went to the potions lab he had seen earlier to prepare a poultice for his leg wound. He went back to the study and tried to decide which books to read, he already had a solid magical theory foundation from his re reading during his year in the forest, and he had no pressing need for offensive or defensive magic quite yet, he decided to keep an open mind and read the one of the books about ritual magic.

Going back into the bedroom he had found earlier he went into the bathroom and was startled to see the full effect surviving in the Forbidden Forest for a full year had had on his body. He was no longer quite so scrawny, while living in the Forest had been tough at times he always managed to have adequate food and even some surplus, and his hair and facial hair had grown wild and out of control. He decided he would sort it out later and went into the large bathtub in the corner of the bathroom, with many taps on it like the Prefect's bathroom, and filled it up. Washing away a year of dirt, grime, blood, and everything else that came with living in the Forbidden Forest Harry began to relax for what felt like the first time in forever.

It turns out he was correct in his guess that the stone room he had seen earlier was in fact a ritual room, and that it was probably stocked with all that he needed to get started, but the book did warn against that, saying the first ritual was the most dangerous.  
Not totally disregarding the book Markus and Cygnus had settled into a daily routine, they would sleep in the bedroom with the still sleeping portrait of who Markus guessed was Salazar Slytherin himself. From there they would work out, Markus would and Cygnus would watch, eat breakfast, read for a while, eat lunch, practice spells and then eat dinner and wash up and call it a day.

About two months into his stay Markus had, after much debate and decisions with Cygnus had decided that he was ready for his first ritual. Ritual Magic is magic that usually enhances the body or magic of the user, although other uses and branches did exist. Most rituals were done by reciting spells and using special knives, cutting runes, patterns, and symbols into the flesh of the user. The important part was focusing magic into the cuts made during the ritual while not messing up the cut of the particular rune or symbol and not putting too much magic into it.  
Messing up a ritual, even slightly was certain death in a very painful way. Markus was planning on doing a simple strength enhancing ritual that was not very hard nor dangerous, except for the fact that it was his first ritual. First rituals are dangerous because of the inexperience of the user and the unfamiliar sensation of focusing on pushing magic through the knife, but not too much.

And so Markus Black awoke the next morning on the soft silk sheets of the Slytherin green bed in the master bedroom, the smell and sensation of dried blood filling his senses. He opened his weary eyes and turned to stretch his sore muscles only to be met with the aristocratic face of the portrait. Except this time the eyes were not closed in slumber, but awake and a cold, calculating gleam could be seen in the dark eyes, almost the exact opposite of the warm and inviting twinkle ever present in Dumbledores eyes.  
"So you found my chamber" the now identified Salazar Slytherin said," and woke me from my slumber. Why?" Markus was surprised at the lack of anger from the legendary muggle and muggleborn hater, but managed to relay his story to the portrait. Salazar was not confused nor very surprised and seemed to care little at all, and simply left his portrait frame.  
Markus tried to talk to the frame but no answer came so he started his day as normal. He had changed his schedule slightly with the addition of meditation after dinner for an hour or so. The ritual magic books had recommended this so that he could better sense when he was ready for the next ritual.  
It was only about a month later when Markus had decided to further expand his bloodmagic arsenal. He had one decided on a stamina boosting and speed boosting ritual that were entirely bloodmagic.

He would combine the two rituals so as to save time and because upon meditating on it he felt that it was the right decision. He performed the ritual perfectly, except the decision to combine the two was not the best he could have made. The magical exhaustion and backlash from the ritual was enough to send him into a month long magical coma, during which, with much difficulty, Cygnus had to care for Markus.

Now three months into his yearlong stay he had begun practicing some of the spells he had read in the books in the study. He had decided it best to take another month break before starting up his bloodmagic again. He had started to work on some more powerful shields, and some nastier attack spells (although nowhere near as nasty as the others in the books) he had resigned himself to his fate as a criminal on the run, and knew that he would be involved in a war with Voldemort and quite possibly be fighting the Ministry, so he knew he would need powerful spells and he could not be afraid to use them. Markus was progressing nicely through all of the books he had found in Slytherin's private study, and was trying to work through all of them before he left the Chamber of Secrets.

He had also started to read everything he could find about other magical creatures and races that he could find, particularly about Vampires, though he could not figure out why he was most interested in them. Reading about werewolves brought painful thoughts about Remus and how he was doing. He knew he would meet all sorts of different people and races at his new school in a couple years.

So this became Markus' new schedule, and he waited until the fourth month to start his bloodmagic again, refining some pieces, adding on to others, even adding some more new pieces he felt would be useful or necessary in the future during his quest to defeat Voldemort and protect himself from Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic. 


	5. Chapter 4

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated. Played around with the formatting on this chapter to try and get it right.

Before he knew it his year in the chamber was up and he was left with the dilemma of what to do now that he had a little over a years' time before he could join the Academy. Deciding to leave the chamber through the school, under his invisibility cloak with spells to silence his breathing, and footsteps in place he exited the second floor bathroom. He did not get very far before an old friend, Dobby the house elf 'popped' into existence a couple of yards ahead. Dobby's wide eyes were searching frantically for something or someone and he was pulling on his ears, all the time wearing a ridiculous outfit of random bits of colorful clothing. Markus slowly approached Dobby and heard Dobby muttering to himself about finding the "Great Harry Potter, Sir" and made a quick decision.  
He threw the cloak over Dobby, put his hand over the elf's mouth and whispered into his ear "Shh Dobby it's me, Harry." Dobby's ears immediately shot up and he started bouncing on his heels, no doubt he would have been squealing had Harry not had his hand over his mouth.  
Going into an empty alcove Harry discovered why Dobby was there, and looking for Harry.  
It turned out that the war had taken several turns for the worse, with the Order of the Phoenix split after it came out that Dumbledore had indeed planned to turn Harry in, except Harry had escaped into the Forbidden Forest just minutes before the Aurors arrived. Some of the Order still believed that Dumbledore had done no wrong, the Weasley's especially. Most of the Weasley clan did not think so, but the attitudes of Ron and Molly combined left them firmly in Dumbledore's pocket. The twins, Bill, Charlie, and Arthur felt it was not Harry's fault that Ginny had died. Hermione on the other hand had sided with Dumbledore, Ron, and Molly. Tonks, Remus, Moody, and Shacklebolt to some extent were all firmly in Harry's camp, wherever he might be.  
With the Order split they could combat Voldemort much less efficiently, and Voldemort had stepped up his attacks drastically. He had attacked and utterly destroyed the whole neighborhood Hermione had lived in, killing her whole family and hundreds of others, she was only spared due to being away from the house and at the Burrow at the time. Dobby relayed all of this information to Harry, but at the end included a desperate plea. "Dobby needs a master, mr. Harry Potter sir! Needs! If Dobby isn't bound to new master soon his magic will kills Dobby!"Dobby pleaded with Harry. Harry knew that Dobby had already accepted Harry as his master in his mind and that there would be no refusing this, so he bound Dobby to him with an Oath of Servitude, and sat down to think.  
He thought about the news Dobby had brought, grim tidings indeed. He knew he would have to kill Voldemort, and preferably soon, but he had no idea how or where he could get powerful enough, except in the new school a year from now. Having started pacing which quickly turned to wandering the familiar hallways Harry found himself on the seventh floor. The seventh floor! Perfect! Exactly what he needed. He took off running and stopped at the door to the Room of Requirement. He asked Dobby to stay outside while he and Cygnus went inside. Harry, or Markus as he preferred (and told Dobby as such) waited inside the room for about an hour and came back outside to Dobby, and asked Dobby how long he had been waiting. Dobby looked confused and answered with a slow "Master Markus just left Dobby outside come and go room not two seconds ago, Master Markus."  
Markus was beyond ecstatic, now he could train for as long as he needed in the Room of Requirement. He told Dobby to go back to what he usually did, except once a week stop by and drop in food in the room. Markus, wished that the Room would be exactly like the Chamber of Secrets, and began his training again.

He stayed exactly another year inside the Room of Requirement, having Dobby purchase him potion ingredients and even a ticket to a port key that would take him to America. The potion ingredients Dobby had bought for Markus had been used in some rather complicated potions that Markus used to add a few inches to his height, bringing his hair down to his shoulders, and even one to help cover his scar, which would instantly blow his cover as Markus Black. He had not found a way to change his eye color, but he had eliminated the need for glasses through some very painful vision enhancing blood magic sets. He had even used a rare potion that he had Dobby buy to permanently give Markus a tan, thus even further distancing himself from the Harry everyone knew. He had started to think of himself as Markus a long time ago, sometime in the Forbidden Forest, before he had even come up with the name.

With everything in place, and ready as he would ever be, the now of age Harry Potter apparated himself to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. Markus Blacks first steps into Diagon Alley were very much different than Harry Potters first steps into Dqigon Alley. Markus only saw nearly empty streets, with the few people moving from shop to shop quickly in groups. He stuck his hands in his pocket and headed straight for Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank, ran by Goblins. At the bank he discovered from Griphook that he was Lord Potter, and Lord Black now. He received both House Rings from Griphook and withdrew a couple thousand galleons for any emergency he might have. He moved some money into a world wide account under the name "Markus Black" and went on his way.  
The port key ticket that Dobby had purchased was in fact itself a port key, which triggered five minutes before the port key to America left. With Cygnus around his neck, and his one bag that he had made in the Forbidden Forest filled to the magically enlarged brim with copied books, various magical items, potion ingredients, notes on books, and cases of potions Markus Black set off on his journey to America. 


	6. Chapter 5

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated. I know these last couple have been short, but I plan for this to possibly be a very long story, and it will take me many many months or years to be completely done with.

Markus landed in the magical district of New York City, and managed to navigate himself to the portkey office recommended by the pretty American witch at the International Portkey Office. He paid for a portkey that would take him west, to Arizona. After taking this portkey he and Cygnus arrived in Arizona, in the middle of the summer, in the middle of a heat wave. Cygnus decided he hated portkeys, but loved Arizona. Markus arranged for a magic carpet service to take them to the closest village to the Academy. After being dropped off in the small town Markus and Cygnus set off on foot, towards the mountains they could see in the far distance.

They walked on and on for weeks, putting up wards and resting in the day and traveling at night. Markus kept himself fed on food he had stock piled and water he had conjured, and Cygnus ate well on the desert rodents and creatures.

One morning before going to sleep Markus was scavenging for food, before he and Cygnus literally fell at the feet of a group of Native Americans. Markus had been reaching for some berries on a ledge in the normally flat desert, which had turned hilly a few days ago, they were now in the foothills of the mountains that loomed ever closer. As Cygnus and Markus fell he was reminded of falling into the Chamber of Secrets, except this had much more rocks in the way. He landed in an ungraceful heap right in front of the Native American on horseback, with Cygnus landing on his back a second later,hissing his displeasure.

The man on horseback extended a hand and pulled Markus on to the horse and took off at a gallop. After an hour or so of riding they were in a small village. The man took Markus into a very crude building where an old man was sitting near a fire, the old man had long black, braided hair, and seemed to be positively ancient. The younger man who had brought Markus to the village bowed and left, leaving Markus with the elderly man. The man broke the silence first, pointing at himself and exclaiming "Elder" in a strong voice. Markus introduced himself as "Markus" and they talked for a long time, getting very little done due to the language barrier. In the end it was decided that Markus would stay for a year, and learn what they could teach him. He learned that they were not entirely magical, but they all knew of magic and had shamans, who could perform magic and enchanted bows and arrows like the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest.

And the year passed without any problems. Markus was accepted and he loved it there. He learned how to carve a bow and how to fletch arrows, and even put minor sharpening enchantments on the arrows and how to carve symbols and runes into the bow to increase it's power and it's durability. He was even able to keep up with his bloodmagic, albeit at a reduced pace. Before he knew it the year was up and he was sent on his way with his bow, some arrows and some food. Cygnus had enjoyed his stay and had grown, one almost six feet long. He had been given a rough map with the correct direction to walk in marked on the map. And so his trek into the desert started once again.

As Markus, equipped with his bow and now two magical satchels (he had made another during his stay with the tribe) full of various goods and supplies, worked his way through the desert another person became aware of his presence. Ancient Vampire Felix Drakul had been stalking an elusive species of dragon like creatures through the Reservation, and had been for four days. He had been picking up vaguely familiar magical traces and for not quite a single second he had picked up the slightest, barest hint of his own magic. It had undoubtedly been his, so distinct and powerful, but had then disappeared and proven impossible to relocate. This had been incredibly frustrating to the ancient vampire, who was very used to having everything go his way through careful planning, but was viewed as a welcomed challenge/ riddle to be solved. But now he had picked up the trail again, and was coming ever closer to solving this riddle.

Harry, or Markus as he preferred now was, as he estimated, about a week away from the outlying wards and patrols of the NAAA. He had been very careful to avoid the overly dangerous areas marked on his crude map. While he had enjoyed his time with the native American tribe he never became close with any of them, but he had learned their methods of bow crafting and basic enchantments related to it. He had even barely began to grasp and apply the basic elemental magics that the shamans of the tribe had used, and he suspected the Forest Elves had been using on that day that for him was 4 years ago, but in real time just 2 years ago.

Exhaling slowly he loosed the magically enhanced arrow from his bow straight into the rabbit 15 meters away, and retrieved the arrow and rabbit. Walking briskly back to his makeshift shelter for the day he could sense the dawn coming, he always had had an affinity for the nighttime, and the brutal heat of the desert days did little to encourage day time activities. Marks had always been able to sense when the dawn was coming as well, within a couple hours time.

After cleaning, cooking, and eating the rabbit Markus cast the basic wards of protection, alarm, minor defense, and cooling that he would need during the day, while he meditated and slept. Despite his more powerful magic and more apt magical sensing abilities he had no way of knowing of the figure crouched low on the ridge of a hill not quite a quarter mile away. 


	7. Chapter 6

And thus I give you the last of what I have written out already.

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Felix Drakul had finally pinpointed his target, and while still confused about it he knew now was the time to strike. Scanning his surroundings as he approached the small, warded cave that provided day time shelter to his target he palmed and readied two crystals. The first crystal, midnight black and seemingly pulling in the light around it would, unsurprisingly, launch everything into a darkness thicker and blacker than night. The other crystal, a Stunner, would stun and disorient anything caught in it's radius, while not exceedingly powerful it could be very useful.

Upon reaching the entrance to the cave and sensing two magical signatures, one human (undoubtably his target) and one reptilian (his familiar) he sent a small magical charge to the first crystal to activate it and tossed it into the cave.

Markus himself had been inside the cave practicing drawing his bow to full length while quietly conversing with Cygnus. When the bright cave suddenly went pitch black he reacted instantly, dropping to one knee and keeping the bow ready with an arrow knocked. He had felt no disturbance in the magic around him or in the wards prior to the attack and still felt nothing, whoever or whatever was assaulting his cave was at least knowledgeable or powerful enough to circumvent his, admittedly rudimentary wards.

With shallow breaths and all of his very basic, very low level bloodmagic running at full power he mentally prepared himself for whatever was to come. Exactly three seconds after the cave had gone dark he heard a crunching noise near the entrance to the cave, and felt a magical wave hit him, and nearby Cygnus. The wave forced him to sway, steadying himself on the rock, but staying crouched and hidden, and knocked out Cygnus. His fears had been confirmed, although there was little doubt to begin with; he was under attack.

Outside the cave Felix could still sense that the human was conscious, and would probably be disoriented, or scrambling to prepare a defense. Waiting another three seconds after the Stunning Crystal detonated he raised his wand and dove into the entrance of the cave. His own extensive bloodmagic works enabled him to see perfectly in the darkened cave, and his immense power allowed him to raise a shield even as the boy in the cave loosed his arrow in his direction.  
The arrow hit the shield dead on and immediately shattered, the enchantments on it then exploding a split second later. Felix immediately sent a wide range Stunner into the back of the cave, overpowered so as to leave no room for resisting it's affects.

Markus never stood a chance against the spell, despite how he had subconsciously resisted the stunner in the crystal. He was out cold before he even hit the ground of the cave.  
In seconds Felix had swept the boy's unconscious body off the ground, skimmed the outermost layer of his mind, discovering his name and if he was a threat, and apparated halfway across the globe. His hunt for the dragon like creatures would have to be out on hold while he secured the boy, Markus, and discovered exactly why he was giving off a minuscule, but steady flow of Felix's distinct vampiric magic.

Apparating to a safe house located in India that belonged to Felix he dismissed the two vampire servants/guards away and went into the small two story cottage. He could sense Markus beginning to wake from the stunning spell, it seems crossing over the wards had agitated or irritated him enough to begin the somewhat slow process of regaining consciousness.  
Felix laid him on the lavish yet comfortable sofa up against the wall in the first floor of the cottage. The two story cottage was just two large rooms, one upstairs, one downstairs, and an adequate potions laboratory in the one room basement/ cellar for stockpiling and making necessary potions.

Charming his arms and legs down he felt Markus become fully conscious, yet he did not move or seemingly react at all, to an onlooker. The ancient vampire however immediately could hear and see his heart beating faster, and his breathing quicken ever so slightly.  
"I know you're awake, Harry." Felix knew that using Markus's old name he would disorient him further.

As his eyes snapped wide open Markus immediately tried to roll off of the couch when he found that he was thoroughly restrained, and as he struggled more it became tighter.

"That's not my name. What do you want from me?" Markus knew he was in trouble, he could feel the massive amount of power in the man sitting just a few feet away from him, hidden just below the surface, and very evident in the charms restraining him to the couch. He just hoped that the mysterious man was not working for the Ministry, Voldemort, or even Dumbledore. He was still very suspicious of the old man and suspected that he wanted Harry captured and Kissed. Which is exactly what would happen if Markus was captured and identified in anyplace that for some reason would turn him in.

"I want to know many things. I could rip the secrets straight from your very soul with a single thought, but I am feeling merciful, and you would surely try to fight me off. For now I simply wish to know if you will answer some questions willingly." Felix was not bluffing about being able to take the secrets, but he could sense massive power and even more potential in the young man still bound to the couch in front of him.  
"Fine, but first, who the hell are you?" Harry knew he was playing a risky game, making deands of his captor, but he was never the most patient of people.  
"Felix Drakul, lord and last of the line of Drakul."  
An eerie shiver went down Markus's back as he heard the last name. He had been captured by Felix Drakul, ancient vampire, lord of the line of Drakul, whose line was started by the last of the line directly from Dracula himself. He had heard whispered stories of the power, rage, and bloodlust of the Drakul line. Fearsome on the battlefield and all of them magically powerful they were known throughout the world, and he had managed to get himself captured by Lord Drakul himself, the ancient last of House Drakul.

Felix could smell the sudden fear rolling off of Markus and did nothing to calm him. The scent coming off of him, fear mixed with curiosity and a tangy smell of magic itself was quite enticing to Felix, and would be to most vampires old enough to truly appreciate the scent.


	8. Chapter 7

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

The Pureblooded Witch and Wizard that Harry is blamed for their deaths are Ginny Weasley, and Gregory Goyle Sr. during his little jaunt into the Department of Mysteries. This is important for later.

Felix was no ordinary vampire. He was a true Ancient, being over 3,000 years old he had amassed quite a large fortune, with hundreds of properties, safehouses, and various enterprises. He was the last of the blood line that sprouted from the last of Dracula's bloodline. A distant relation, but it still gave him sway and power over the other vampires. The vampires had long ago, actually during the time of Dracula, many thousands of years ago, had set up a rather rigid hierarchy. The oldest were most powerful because they had managed to survive to their old age, and as vampires aged they accumulated power from different sources.

Felix was no exception, and he was one of if not the most powerful vampire on Earth at the time. He was the last of the aristocratic bloodline of Dracula, and always looked the part. Pale blue eyes that lacked the shine of life behind them surveyed the view in front of him. He looked at the poor boy still restrained on the couch, and reveled in the fear coming off of him. So even the great Harry Potter had heard the legends of the Drakul's. He and his kin, while they had been alive, had for thousands of years been misleading the mortals over the history of Dracula. They had shrouded their history into legend and myth, but it seemed the more violent tales of his bloodline were still told, if the pale boy in front of him was any indication.

Also coming off of the boy in waves was now intense curiosity and confusion. Why was he there? And why was Felix Drakul so interested in him. He asked as such.

"Simply put Harry, you are here because I want you to be here. You are giving off trace amounts of my own magic, so small even you wouldn't sense it yourself." Felix left off the fact that he could sense residue of Time Magic on the boy. Felix knew that he had many options of taking what he wanted to know from Harry, or Markus as he preferred, but felt this way was better, this way there was no risk of accidentally damaging Markus, who he could sense massive potential in.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about. I've never even seen you or any bloody vampire before!" Markus was beginning to let his frustration at his current predicament through, despite knowing that getting agitated would do nothing at all to help his situation. He just couldn't help it.

Running his hand through his long black hair Felix sighed. The deeper he looked, and the more diagnostic charms he subtly cast on Markus the more he was intrigued. He could sense the power and potential in Markus, but just out of his reach he could sense even more power, more potential that for some reason was blocked off. He knew that to bind that kind of power would require an incredibly powerful Ritual of Binding, and probably periodic strengthening. Which meant strong bloodmagic wards tied into the very soul of the agitated boy still restrained on the couch.

Markus had just given up struggling against his bonds once again, he could move his head slowly now, but he had made no progress on the rest of his body. He did not know where he was, why he was there, where his bow and supplies were, and where Cygnus was. He considered hissing out for his familiar in Parseltongue, but decided he would rather not display his power to his now captor, who's motives were still unclear.

Felix knew that the only way to get a clear glimpse of the bloodmagic wards would be to drink the boy's blood and sift through all of the information that he could glean from it. But he knew the boy would not like it at all.

"I am going to bite and sample your blood in order to examine the bloodmagic wards closer. It will be less painful if you cooperate."

Before Markus could comply register the statement, let alone think about what bloodmagic wards? The only time he had heard of blood wards was whenever Dumbledore would discuss the protective enchantments over his relative's home that he would have to recharge each summer. Not two seconds after Felix had warned Markus he bent down and nicked a vein in Markus's wrist with his razor sharp fangs.

The blood was sweet in his mouth, and tasted of raw magical power. It was one of the tastiest mortals he had drank from in a long time, and he could feel his own blood and body absorbing the smallest amount of magic from Markus, thus making him infinitesimally more powerful. While feeding off of one person did make him unnoticeably more powerful over time, with many people fed off of the effects would add up, one of the reasons vampires got stronger and more powerful the more they aged.

It tasted so pleasant that Felix was nearly tempted to drain him dry right then. Nearly. But he knew that he could do no such thing, not with such a juicy and puzzling mystery afoot. He began to scan Markus's blood for memories, magic, any sort of useful information at all. And suddenly it hit him. He was launched into the memory of a baby Harry Potter looking up and seeing Voldemort's face after he had killed his mum and dad, Felix's face as he turned him into a vampire, and finally then the face of Dumbledore as he hid and bound this vampirism. The memories came rushing back to Felix as the powerful bloodmagic wards were snapped.

Eyes bulging out, Markus began struggling as hard as he could against the magic holding him in place when he felt searing pain shoot all across his body, and remembered what Felix had said. Forcing down all of his survival instincts he tried to calm himself down with simple breathing exercises he had picked up during his meditations in the past few years. He felt the pain just begin to dim and fade away when Felix released his wrist from his mouth and staggered backwards a step. His vision faded to black as all of his magic roared in every cell of his body, the bloodmagic wards had been broken and with the addition of the new vampiric magic Markus needed to readjust and rebalance his magic, which it would do on its own. It just needed time, the process however, was extremely painful, and somewhat dangerous. The magical backlash of the bloodmagic wards being broken and his vampirism flooding into the main part of his soul was taking a heavy toll on Markus. He barely registered his ability to move as the world around him faded to black.

Felix had received the biggest shock of his life, at least in the past millennium or so. He had been so careless! He should have realized what had happened! As soon as the blood had touched his lips the memories that he did not even realize had been hidden from him came rushing back. His head started to pound, even as his blood boiled with anger. He felt incredible rage not only against Dumbledore, but himself. He had seen through the boy's eyes the ritual that Dumbledore performed to lock away the memories and the boy's vampirism.

He had created a vampire, and the memories had been locked away from him. He had gotten complacent in his seat of power, he had been arrogant and had not been diligent in his own security. This was very worrisome to Felix Drakul.

What was not quite as worrisome, but now quite the puzzle he released the bonds holding Markus down. The boy was unconscious, and sparks of pure wild magic danced across his body, across the leather skins he wore, that looked oddly like Native American clothing styles. Felix would have to question the boy over it later, he had to help him settle his magic now, and get used to the vampiric magic. It would be quite an odd process, considering vampirism kills its host, it would now overwhelm Markus's magic and implant itself into his soul. Inevitably it would kill Markus in the process.


	9. Chapter 8

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

A battle was taking place inside Markus's soul itself. The bloodmagic wards that had bound and hidden the vampirism had been destroyed the second Felix, his unknowing creator, had touched Markus's blood to his lips. That started the magical battle inside his soul.

The vampirism that had been hidden was not very powerful, his innate vampiric powers would be below par for other vampires his age, but not too far below. The Ritual of Binding that Dumbledore had performed, and periodically strengthened with more sacrifices, had also bound the Horcrux inside of Markus into the same area of his soul as the vampirism. Due to the strong vampiric bloodline from Felix the vampirism was able to overpower the horcrux and feed off of it. However somehow it knew that the horcrux would be its only prey, feeding off of it and letting it replenish the slightest bit before feeding off of it again. This strengthened his vampirism, and held the horcrux back from what it would have been.

However, Markus had no idea of any of this going on. He was currently locked into his own mindscape, but on a deeper level than usual Occlumency required. He was, in his mind at least, back in the cave he had first stayed in on the run from the Ministry, in the Forbidden Forest. This was familiar to him, he visited as often as he could to add layers of protection, enchantment, and traps to his mindscape to further protect himself from any mind magic.

But know he was standing at the entrance to the cave, looking inwards and what he saw confused and startled him. A swirling mass of pure magic, shimmering into many different colors all at once, was being mixed with another large mass of greyish black magic, and a slightly smaller mass of pure green magic, the color of Harry Potter's eyes.

Where the three clouds would mix lightning would strike and jump from cloud to cloud, mixing ever so slightly. He had a faint idea that he was looking onto his soul and magical core trying to balance itself out, but did not completely understand what was going on. In his exhausted and beaten down state he did not notice the mental presence of Felix settle next to him at the entrance of the cave.

"That's your soul Markus."

Startled at the seemingly sudden appearance of the ancient vampire inside the deepest levels of his supposedly protected mindscape he blurted out the first question that came to mind.

"How did you get here?"

"I created you. I have near supreme power and control over you. Even without that it would have been child's play to smash or circumvent your barriers."

Created? But Markus was no vampire, he was certain of that. But he had sensed no lie or misdirection from the vampire, why would he lie about it anyway? Realization beginning to dawn on Markus he snapped his head back to the swirling mass of battling magic, and began to examine the greyish black magic closer.

It smelt of blood, dried blood, fresh blood, old blood, new blood, blood in every way, and felt like pure death. Which was very close to what it actually was. It was the vampire virus, locked into his soul so long ago before it could infect his blood stream thoroughly. Even as it slowly overwhelmed the mass of Markus's raw magic in front of it, which should have easily crushed it, the virus went through his body changing and killing each cell, but filling it with magic instead of life. The raw magic that passed through the grey-black cloud was still the shimmering and changing color it was before, but more subdued, no less powerful, but more controlled than before.

"I'm going to die soon, aren't I?" Markus sadly asked Felix, it was bitter to live 4 years in varying stages of solitude and then to get cut down to vampirism. When had he even been turned? And Felix had done it, why was he not raised a vampire?

"Yes. Very soon actually, but the vampirism will make sure your soul, magic, and mind reattach firmly. It will be different from everything you have known, and yet similar. I can do nothing to help you now."

Lightning clashed outside the cave they were standing in, inside Markus's mind, just as the last of the horcrux and Markus's raw magic passed through the vampiric cloud. The split second before his mind shut off in death Felix leapt out of his mindscape, and back into the cottage.

The cottage was not the perfect, nor the proper place for this to happen, but it would have to do. Markus would likely be out of commission for a week or so, and it would be too dangerous to try and transport him now. With how delicate his magic was right now it could prove disastrous to even cast a simple charm or spell over him.

The vampirism would have to take hold now, and even when it did Markus was in for one hell of a shock. To be suddenly thrown from fugitive on the run into the role of vampire, especially when his creator was one of the oldest and most powerful vampires on Earth, not to mention he would need to adjust to the act of drinking blood, and adapt to all of vampire society, really. That would be difficult for the boy.

Setting him down on the upstairs bed Felix sat down and pulled out a journal with many loose sheets of parchment and diagrams of the human body, with ink runes all over them. He was planning his next set of bloodmagic rituals, and was coming close to making a major breakthrough. While he already had very extensive bloodmagic over his entire body he was constantly planning to add more, adding more, or refining what he had in place. He could sense the minor bloodmagic that Markus had already done and was intrigued. It seems he had made a good decision all those years ago when he had turned the baby who had been wreathed in a cloud of deathmagic feeding off his very soul. Now remembering that death magic he had it locked away somewhere, he would be able to figure out with careful reflection and meditation, but that would have to wait. In a week or so he would know if he was truly the last of the line of Drakul, or if he had a suitable candidate for Prince.

There was a chance that the vampirism in Markus would kill him outright and never reattach his soul, mind and magic, it was slim, but a chance nonetheless. If this did not happen then Felix would send the young vampire off to the NAAA, but not after a quick and brutal crash course in everything he would need to know. He knew he would need time for that, time that he did not have if he wanted Markus to attend the Academy at the minimal age, which he did, in order for him to receive as much training and instruction as he could.

He set his journal down and pulled out a quill and ink to begin penning a letter to his oldest ally, and only real friend in the world. Sure he had acquaintances and other allies, but the honor of his only friend went to Alexander Ivanov.

Now the fierce leader of all vampires in Russia he had fought countless wars and always emerged on top. He had met Felix as a young vampire, both traveling the world for some time, and they had spent nearly a millennium together leaping from adventure to adventure. They had stayed in close contact and only gotten closer over the next two thousand years, each coming to the others aid when necessary, and just being a 'friend' as the mortal's would call it.

Felix needed time and he had several options. Years ago he and Alexander had set up multiple properties and estates that could be removed from the normal time stream, although it took ridiculously huge amounts of power. And it would not give them very long at all, he knew he had to consider all of his options.

Finishing the letter and sending it off he knew the plans would have to wait, it would not do to prepare extravagant plans only to have Markus not survive the transformation, but it would also not do to be unprepared when it was very likely that he would survive and emerge a rather powerful, very untrained, and probably angry young vampire.

Felix went back downstairs and gathered Markus's belongings, and his snake. Going back upstairs he set the snake near Markus's head on the bed, the familiar presence of his familiar would hopefully provide an additional tether to the world for his magic, mind, and soul to come back to. The same was done with his enchanted bow, arrows, and satchels. His own magical signature nearby would comfort him at least somewhat, hopefully.

Comfortable in the fact that Markus was stable for now, at least as stable as possible, Felix knew he had preparations to make, and walked a few dozen paces away from the cottage and apparated from there, so as to take no risks of the magic interfering with Markus' and the change he was currently going through.

When Markus awoke he would be angry, and hungry on such a level that he had never known before. His vampirism had been locked away for over a decade and a half, feeding only off of a small sliver of a soul when it could. It would be demanding blood, and immediately upon regaining consciousness. And Felix held no doubts, Markus would drink and feed until he was full, no doubt killing his victims as he drained every drop from their bodies, as only a starved vampire could do. His innate vampiric magic would be stunted and starved, and hopefully a good selection of mortals to feed from would jumpstart its recovery and eventual progression.

He did not know how Markus would feel about killing his victims every time he fed until he learned proper control, but he did know that it was inevitable.

Appearing at the nearest village he stormed into the nearest house he saw. Blasting the door down he was in no mood to be as careful as he should have been or as discreet as he should have been. It was an all muggle village, and pitifully small at that. Inside he lazily waved his was and a wide range stunning spell, much like the one he had used on Markus in the cave in the desert, stunned the four occupants of the small house, another wave binding them, and yet another wave transporting them to near the cottage. With a telepathic message to the two guards/ servants he had waved off when he first arrived he knew that they would be taken down to the cellar and kept alive until Markus awoke.

Repeating this process with the next house he saw he decided that he had enough victims to last Markus a sufficient amount of time, and apparated back to the cottage.


	10. Chapter 9

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Seriously. Reviews would be fantastic, I need the feedback. I will not be able to update as much starting tomorrow, but I will try my hardest. REVIEW PLEASE also PM me with any suggestions or ideas or with thoughts on where you would like to see this story go. If you'd like.

It had been nearly a week since Markus Black had started to undergo his magical transformation into the vampire he really was. It had been a slow, steady transformation because if it was too sudden it would kill him outright, barring any chance of his mind, magic, and soul returning and anchoring to his body again.

During this time his creator, Felix Drakul, had been making many preparations in expectance of his young creation emerging through the other side. After all he was powerful, and had made a partial transformation when he was just a baby, which would make this transformation easier, if only slightly.

He had spent the week observing and helping Markus when he could, and also running the number of side projects and operations he had going on at any one time. He also took time to observe and monitor Markus as he progressed through the transformation, after around the third day he was positive that he would make it all the way through, the magic had fully returned, the soul was beginning to tether itself back, but the mind was still not there, and would not be there until the second before the transformation was complete.

He had been correct in assuming that the magical signature on the bow and items that belonged to Markus and comforting presence of his familiar would be beneficial. Feeding Markus's familiar had been tricky at first, but had only needed the one feeding to last the week, not even really needing it, just wanting it to stay at peak shape for when Markus inevitably woke up.

Dressed in regal looking black robes with a golden thread trim, which was actually powerful golden thread used in threadmagic that Felix himself had woven, he strolled into the second story of the cottage that had been Markus's room for the past week. He easily conjured a dark leather armchair and reclined, face passive, but to those familiar with him he had a spark of excitement in his eyes. He loved mysteries and challenges, and Markus Black had proven to be both. He snorted to himself as he thought how they had never formally introduced themselves. He had introduced himself as Felix Drakul, of course, but he had obtained the knowledge of Markus's identity through light legilimency and telepathy. How rude of him.

Twirling his wand in his fingers he knew that Markus was due to wake up any second, he had been closely monitoring the transformation, and few people knew quite as much about vampirism as he did. He felt Markus's mind snap back into his body the split second before the eyes on the now paler skinned boy's face opened wide, frantically taking in all the information they could, searching the room.

Pointing his wand to the ground Felix immediately teleported one of the muggle mortals kept in the cellar the past week, watched over and fed by the two guards on this small property, directly into the room. The muggle was a middle aged Indian man, from the nearest village, after all this cottage was secluded and hidden away in the northern part of India.

Markus immediately jumped the man, his new razor sharp fangs slicing deep into the man's throat, eyes ablaze with hunger and rage.

As Felix watched Markus sloppily feed off of the man he snorted to himself again and then sighed, it was just as he expected, he would have to teach Markus everything he needed to know to survive being a vampire at NAAA, if he still wished to attend.

Actually, it did not matter if he still wished to attend, he would be going anyway. But Felix thought he would want to. Noticing that the man was moments from being drained completely dry, and was already dead he summoned another muggle, this time a woman, into the room.

Markus dropped the limp body from his hands and leapt at the new blood filled body. He had not even come close to slaking his bloodthirst with the first muggle, and he could smell the fear coming off of the woman. Hearing her heart beat in his now hypersensitive ears he tore at her throat with his fangs as well.

He was a messy and inefficient eater in the beginning, as most vampires were before they learned to control themselves and feed delicately instead of ripping and tearing to get as much blood as they could as quickly as they could.

His head was overflowing with information, being constantly bombarded with new magic and discoveries about this magic that was buried inside the Drakul bloodline, and also with the information from the blood of the muggles. This began to bring a headache to Markus, but in his bloodlust had not, and would not notice it until later.

As he continued to feed he noticed this victim becoming limp too, and discarded it in search of more prey. His crazed eyes searched the room he was in, he heard no heartbeat except a small animal, not worth his time, and he could smell nothing except the slightly tangy blood of the mortal muggles.

Seeing a tall man, who was indeed his creator, Markus jumped to attack him, but the magic in all vampires held him back from a full out assault on the one who had created him. Struggling as hard as he could to quench his decade and a half long thirst and hunger he tried valiantly to attack Felix, but no matter how hard he tried could not get within a few meters of him.

Felix had had enough and was beginning to feel fed up with the way the young vampire in front of him was disrespecting him. Newly turned though he was he should have been able to sense the massive power that was Felix Drakul, especially with his heightened vampire senses. Lifting his right arm he squeezed his hand as if around Markus's throat and lifted him off the ground wandlessly. Although Markus had no need to breath, so the sensation was just mildly discomforting, he was raised off the ground and unable to continue his attack on Felix.

As the young vampires eyes met the ancients he saw for the first time just how powerful Felix was. In his pale blue eyes he saw a thousand magical blizzards all storming and blowing fiercely as one, and as he looked deeper he was even more entranced. He could feel the room begin to form a thin layer of frost over everything, and only the hissing of his familiar, Cygnus, brought him back to reality.

"Sss Markussss?"

"Yesss, Cygnusss?" He had forgotten about his familiar during his bloodlust, and while he was still being held in the air by Felix he felt Cygnus slither up his body and coil around his neck.

"You are colder than usssual."

"Yesss, I have become a vampire, Cygnussss, a massster of the night, a predator unmatched in all the realmssss." The immense pride held in being a vampire had obviously strongly taken hold in Markus's mind. Felix thought about it, he had been able to at least understand Parseltongue, and had been for several centuries, but could never quite speak it. At least what Markus had said seemed to show that he had a true vampires mindset, he would not have to bother with any lessons on the morality of killing while he fed, or any such matters. At least for now.

His bloodlust had been sated and he was content for now, but he would probably need to feed again in the next six to twelve hours. When he had awoken it had been with the stroke of midnight, now it was nearing one A.M., but he did not feel tired at all. He was wide awake, and now curious about what he himself had become, and what exactly it meant.

He had no way of knowing this, nor did Felix, but exactly as Markus awoke as a vampire, completing the transformation, half a dozen wards and detectors had tripped inside the headmasters office, soothing the old man's fears, and telling him that Harry Potter was dead once and for all. And so he was, just not quite as dead as the Headmaster had hoped.

And thus Felix sat down with Markus, and began to slowly explain exactly what it meant that he was now a vampire, and especially that he was of the Drakul bloodline. Felix was still Lord Drakul, but he was no longer the last of his bloodline. Once he had had a rather large line, with around a score of vampires, but they had died off and he had never turned anyone to replace them. But now he had a Prince, Markus Black was the new Prince Drakul, or at least he would be when he had completed his training to a satisfactory level.

Markus had been full of questions and excitement about his new life, he had taken to the vampiric mindset even deeper than Felix had realized. When it had been locked away the vampirism had been able to subtly influence the subconscious mind and soul in Markus, conditioning him to be ready, in case the situation ever arose, exactly as it had and the vampirism locked in his soul had the chance to take control and manifest itself properly.

His magic was still in the final stages of sorting and balancing itself out, and was trying to fit the last bits of knowledge and bits of vampiric magic into the correct slots. Markus did not have very powerful abilities as a vampire yet, nor any really unique ones, and it was unlikely any would develop any time soon due to his stunted and blocked vampirism.

After a nearly six hour long conversation with Felix he felt more comfortable and secure in his knowledge. They had only taken a short break a few hours in so that Markus could feed once more. He still fed sloppily, getting blood all over his face, clothes, and everywhere in the vicinity, but it was easily enough taken care of with a lazy wave of Felix's hand. Markus had been eager to begin learning vampiric magic's and delving back into bloodmagic, which he had had to take a break from during his stay with the Native American tribe. But Felix had put down Markus and told him he would be learning control first of all, and that there was no room for debate on the subject. It was absolutely vital that Markus learn to control himself so that he could feed neatly and without killing each time. This control would also help when he was learning other disciplines of magic.

Despite the power and potential present in Markus, especially with his transformation completed he still had very little formal training in the sorts of magic he would need, and in general his magical education was lacking. He would need to work very hard just to keep up in his classes at NAAA when he registered, and would need training and supervision to make sure he had no outbursts with his new vampiric magic and senses. It would be difficult to keep up with his vampiric training, especially mastering his vampire senses with so many other species and vampires around, it would likely prove to be very dangerous.

But luckily, Alexander Ivanov, Felix's only true friend, had a solution in mind, and he thought that all parties involved would be satisfied.


	11. Chapter 10

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, even if it's just to say you enjoy or don't enjoy the story. I'd love to hear why though. This chapter is a bit longer than the others, I wish I could write more and post longer chapters of 7-10k words, but I will probably be slowing down on the updates soon, and am trying to churn out as many as possible. Hopefully hit 20k total story words tonight.

Markus Black, or Markus Drakul now is more apt of a name, woke in his bedroom in the basement level of Felix's estate located somewhere, he believed in the Western Hemisphere. Felix had been vague with his answer, and had really done little more than dodge the question when Markus had asked.

He had been a full vampire for a little less than three days, and as excited as he was to begin learning all sorts of useful and dangerous magic he knew that Felix was right, he had to learn to control himself first.

Right now he killed every single time he fed, and it was a messy and drawn out process. This made hunting for prey himself substantially harder, and it was agreed that Felix would provide muggles for him until he could learn to feed and hunt on his own. This was acceptable for the moment, and only was acceptable because it was being provided by his creator, his lord. Vampires are usually fiercely independent creatures, except they were rather submissive to those higher ranked than them in the hierarchy, and it went doubly so for your own lord or creator. The lord of your bloodline had huge control over your continued existence, and if the balance of power was disproportionate enough a lesser vampire could be killed with a single thought or wish from his lord.

Felix first taught Markus how to slip into a meditative trance in just a few quick minutes, while before it had taken Markus upwards of an hour to do so. This allowed him to spend more time in his mindscape, piecing everything together. It would have been quite a shock had his mind not taken to the vampirism as it had. He had been reviewing the knowledge that he had gained and stored as an infant when he had ingested the blood of Felix. Now that he was going through it he was able to tap into the latent knowledge and power in the blood of his creator.

Tapping into this knowledge showed him what it was like to have total control over his vampiric urges to feed, and using that as a template he was able to begin learning to control himself as he fed. It would still take another month or so until he was able to just partially feed to slake his thirst. At least now when he feed he was content for longer and longer as his vampirism was stabilizing and becoming comfortable in his body. The same amount of blood would keep him satisfied for longer when he finally became used to the vampirism and started to exert his own will and control over it.

As it stood he fed at least once a day, the large amounts of blood that he was ingesting was serving to jumpstart and repair any damage that could have been down to his innate abilities and skills while his vampirism was blocked behind the wall of bloodmagic and enchantments. Felix had done more poking around the remnants and residue of the bloodmagic and had gone through the memories several times. Felix was still very upset with himself for not noticing, and though he would never admit it to anyone it unnerved him slightly. He had been so sure of his power that he had missed the, admittedly subtle, magic blocking away his memories. He had just continued on with his project in England, never questioning anything about that night. He never had any reason to think about it because for all he knew it was a routine night, and he had made good progress on his project.

As the days went on slowly Markus did begin to gain more control of his feeding. It became less and less messy, and he had even started to be able to pull himself away before he killed the muggle. The muggle still died of shock or blood loss, but he was not draining them into empty husks as he once had, not unless he wanted to.

Usually the process of learning that kind of control over his feeding would vary from vampire to vampire. The younger the 'victim' was turned the more powerful they would be later in life. Typically the most powerful were the magical babies turned within just a few months of birth, then came magical vampires turned in their teens, and finally later in life. If they were turned early enough they would continue to age into their mid- twenties to early thirties, but if they were turned after hitting nineteen or twenty years old they would not age from their current age.

Also, not all vampires were magical. The most powerful ones certainly were, but given a few decades of dedicated bloodmagic squib vampires could begin to gain regular wand magic and access to the other branches and forms of magic.

It would take muggle vampires at least a decade to become able to use the most basic of bloodmagic, and at least a century past that before they could even hope to try the simplest wand magic spells. Most other branches and forms of magic were blocked off to muggle vampires completely, they required a deep connection and understanding with ones magic.

Muggles vampires were always turned later in life, they could not handle the transformation as an infant, or at least until their late teens. Occasionally magical vampires, or muggle vampires would turn groups of muggle mortals in an attempt to form a group that would be completely loyal to them, and serve them. Most of these were put down quickly and violently, after all the oldest of the vampires always needed new slaves, servants, guards, and subjects for experiments, not to mention a source of vampire blood.

The most powerful of these groups had long ago established power and divided up the world amongst themselves. The ruling groups were called Clans, and were led either by a single vampire, or a council of vampires. The Clans varied in size, power, and land controlled, but each had many resources at their disposal, and would often war with each other over many different things.

All of this was included in what Markus could glean from the bits of knowledge hidden in Felix's blood, and in what Felix taught him. Felix still focused mainly on control over his feeding, but recently they had started training Markus to be quieter as he moved, and to even begin to learn how to meld into shadows.

The quietness was an innate talent of vampires, it came with being undead. They simply weren't as loud as living creatures. They disturbed less air than a regular mortal, especially when standing still, because they did not breathe. They still gave off scents, especially death and blood, but their hearts did not beat. They were just quiet creatures in general. And Markus had taken to his training with much enthusiasm. In order to pose a formidable challenge they were also working on blending into shadows, but that was done mainly during the daytime. The sun agitated and irritated Markus's skin, and if he was directly exposed for longer than three or four hours without any breaks his skin would ache and itch. It was decidedly uncomfortable, and unusual for Markus, he had spent his entire life normally, and suddenly the sun itself repelled him. But it was no deterrent, he learned as best he could. Training during the daytime would make it easier in the nighttime, and also just easier in general.

Markus had yet to realize it, but once again he was under a Time Distortion Field of sorts, this one had been heavily modified by Felix and Alexander, and could be removed from the time stream for up to six months before it required a month or so to recharge the runic arrays and recharge the powerful enchantments. Felix had immediately taken Markus here, and firmly set the property and small estate around it outside the time stream for the maximum time. He had had it stocked with large amounts of muggle blood, and even just over a hundred muggles being supported in stasis charms. The sooner Markus could control himself the better, as the blood was in limited supply, and Felix did not want to have to redrop into the time stream just to stock up on muggles.

About a month after completing his vampiric transformation Markus had finally gained sufficient control over himself. He would still need to be careful when he fed off of magical beings, but that would not be a problem for another five or so months. And he should be well in control by that time, as long as he kept up the rigorous training schedule. The day that Felix had deemed him sufficiently in control had been the day they began working on the very first purely vampiric spell. He had learned magic and spells that were easier to cast or augmented by his vampirism, but this was the first vampire exclusive spell he would learn.

The spell was fairly simple, the incantation was _Sanguinem Fulmen_ or Blood Bolt. The wand motion was simple, just a jab in the direction of the target. The spell would take excess power or magic from recently consumed blood and turn it into very basic destructive bloodmagic, detonating when it made contact with something or someone. In the beginning of Markus's training he had only been able to cast it when he had just fed, but now as he was becoming completely stable and his body was becoming more efficient with the blood it received he was able to cast it almost whenever he wanted, unless it had been more than ten or so hours since his last feeding.

Felix insisted that he master the spell and be able to cast one sufficiently powerful no matter when his last feeding had been. And so Markus worked hard during the next month and a half. Every night he would do control exercises, physical work outs to increase his endurance, stamina, muscle, speed, and magical reserves, magical routines specifically designed to exhaust him and leave him magically depleted, and practice his natural vampire abilities, such as silent movement, shadow manipulation, and even still perfecting a neat and clean feed.

During the daytime Markus would be allowed to rest and recuperate, and was also expected to meditate and work on his Occlumency shields and barriers. Daytime was also when Felix and Markus would sit outside for hours on end, and Felix would teach Markus about vampire culture, the different clans, the NAAA (which he was planning on enrolling for when they rejoined the time stream) and just general questions on magic and how it worked. Occasionally Felix would tell a story from his past, one of his adventures with Alexander perhaps, or with his kin before his bloodline had dwindled to so few.

When he would speak of the past, especially his old kin and family, Felix's pale, cold eyes, would seem to brighten slightly, even warm up on occasion. Markus had noticed the nostalgic and mournful tone the ancient vampire took on when describing his long since gone family members. Markus hoped that he would be able to be as useful to his lord as they had been, and hoped to become the proper Heir and Prince to the Drakul line, not that Felix had any intention of dying. Ever.


	12. Chapter 11

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Probably one more chapter tonight, maybe around this length, possibly a bit shorter. Then it might be a few days before I can write or post anything new, but hopefully not too long.

It was just over three months into their six month stay on the property when Felix had deemed Markus fit and stable enough to perform bloodmagic rituals. He had carefully reviewed and listened to Markus as he spoke of his first rituals, and the time he had done the two rituals immediately after each other. It had been exceptionally dumb, and unnecessary because Markus had plenty of time to do one, recover, and do the other, but he hadn't. It had worked well for him, each piece was stronger than average, and was more resilient. Felix had banned him from doing any more like that in the future, at least until he had a solid base and foundation of bloodmagic.

Especially now because he was fully comfortable and stable as a vampire he was taking to bloodmagic at a speed he had never had before. Vampires have a natural connection to bloodmagic, as it is what keeps them in their state of undeath. This connection allows for greater speed during the rituals, a deeper personal connection that would help an individual gauge how to react and alter their plans during the ritual if something was not perfectly according to plan. This could also mislead a vampire into thinking they were ready, when in reality they were rushing the rituals too close together, and could lead to a need of repair or maintenance work in the future in any rituals that were too close together.

Markus had also had the opportunity to watch Felix perform two rituals during their three month stay so far. One Felix had not told Markus the purpose of just that it was the first piece in a brand new set, and it was completely of his own invention. He had also not allowed Markus to watch the second half of that particular ritual. He had muttered something about Markus not needing to know right then, and then refused to answer any further questions.

The other ritual had been interesting for Markus to watch as well. It had involved ritual knives specially selected due to their deep connection with death magic, and the bloodmagic ritual involved the sacrifice of three muggles. It was very rare for a ritual to require sacrifice that was not the casters own blood, but this one had. Felix had apparently been working on a new type of Inferius, and the three muggles he had sacrificed would be the first three of their kind. Felix had again remained tightlipped about them, just saying that they would be better kept a secret, another card to hold close to his chest in the ever present power struggle in the vampire world. Even though his position as independent of any clan, respected by all, was firmly set and backed by the very considerable strength of the Ivanov's and Clan Ivanov, it was always good to have some fail safes, and reassurances.

Markus had been reading about the uses of bloodmagic not in rituals for in some way benefitting or performed on the caster. This was his first experience with bloodmagic of that sort, of an advanced level, except the bloodmagic wards. And it was very, _very_ interesting to Markus. Especially the Necromancy Felix had performed.

Markus had a very close connection to death through many different avenues, the Killing Curse being one, turned into a vampire another, the Basilisk venom being another, almost having his soul sucked out by Dementor's one more, and finally transforming into a vampire again. This gave him a close connection to death, something that would make Necromancy easier, but was not completely necessary.

In fact, under strict supervision from Felix, Markus had begun _very_ basic Necromancy training. He had first animated a raven that he had found and killed. He had drained the raven of its blood, and put his own blood into it. Felix had warned against the idea, but tolerated it as long as it was destroyed according to his standards afterward, which was nothing short of _Fiendfyre_. He had made Markus learn the basics of the dark spell before he would even let him consider reanimating anything using his own blood.

The raven had flown and survived for a few days, its own decaying flesh fueling its undead, unnatural life, before the magic in his blood had been spent, and the death magic coming from the decaying bird had not been sufficient to continue the animation on its own. So Markus had then unleashed what was supposed to be a controlled, tight stream of _Fiendfyre_ onto the raven, but had quickly gotten out of control.

Felix had intervened and then expressly forbid him from any more Necromancy experiments until he had the express permission and supervision of Felix. Markus, dejected that he was no longer allowed to run his own experiments, even before he had been allowed to run his own experiments, was determined to learn to control the _Fiendfyre_ and show Felix that he could.

Felix had, however allowed Markus to pick up with his bloodmagic rituals again, and Markus was quickly gaining a solid base and foundation that he would expand upon at the NAAA, assuming he was accepted, and in a few years' time would be able to move into more advanced bloodmagic. A strong base in bloodmagic was necessary for advanced soul magic, death magic, and Necromancy, which was unsurprising. Markus knew that he would need a very strong base and probably some more unique and powerful rituals if he wanted to stay free from the ministry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort.

Felix and Markus had discussed his past several times during their day time chats, and while the sun still agitated Markus he was developing a slight tolerance for it. Felix had sources and informant vampires spread throughout the globe, and the latest news was troubling. Reports supposed death eater activity were on the rise, and it seemed that Voldemort was using the absence of the Savior of the Wizarding World to his benefit. Death Eater recruitment was up, but despite the increased activity, it was still suspiciously quiet. Felix's spies had somehow learned that there was a supposed split in the faction led by Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore believed Harry to be dead, and word of his plans a few years ago to have Harry captured and kissed had leaked out. Markus and Felix supposed this could have caused a split between the Order, and the word was that the Ministry was still offering a sizeable sum for his head.

But Markus was comfortable with his life now. With his transformation he had undergone even more changes, now he was only barely similar to the scrawny, frail Harry Potter. He stood four or five inches taller than the old Harry, much more filled out muscularly, with wavy black hair that fell to about his shoulders. His sharp and fiery green eyes had been dulled to a hard, glinting emerald green that was cold and calculating, something rarely, if ever, associated with the old Harry Potter. Not to mention the fact that he was a damn vampire! No one would suspect that, except possibly Dumbledore, and no one would be able to recognize him by his mannerisms any more. His old lightning bolt scar had even faded with the vampirism taking over his soul and the horcrux. The years spent on his own with just Cygnus and the vampirism taking over had completed wiped out the old meager and meek boy the world knew. Now stood a tall, strong, proud vampire Prince, Heir to the Drakul Line, unwavering in his confidence, resolute in his strength. Or so he liked to imagine. He knew he had a long way to go before he could be described in that manner.

Markus Drakul was quickly becoming what Felix had been looking for in an Heir, even if neither knew it consciously. But Felix knew that he was being more lenient with Markus than any other vampire in the world would have been, accepting minor back talk and disrespect. That is not to say that he let Markus walk all over him, not at all. He regularly thrashed the young vampire when he got too cocky or sure of himself. He had flayed part of his skin off completely after the incident with the raven and the _Fiendfyre_, after all Felix was a firm believer in the school of thought that the more use a vampire's healing magics saw, the better they would be when really needed.


	13. Chapter 12

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Kind of different style this chapter, more dialogue in it than my usual. Last chapter for a few days probably.

"Again! Better this time!" The sound of metal ringing on metal filled the open stone hall. Felix crouched near the center of the room, blindfold tied around his eyes. The blindfold was made with particularly strong threadmagic that blocked all sight, smell, and most hearing. Felix, obviously, could have easily overpowered the blindfold, but chose to let it affect him. He crouched low, slowly rotating in order to face every direction and not get complacent. In his left hand he held nothing, and in his right he held his sword. It was perfectly balanced for Felix, and the ancient vampire felt a sense of comfort in having the heavily enchanted steel blade in his hand. The Drakul line had been infamous for producing swordsmen of amazing quality, whose enchanted blades and magical prowess could turn the battlefield in mere minutes.

"I'm trying as hard as I can!" Markus held his own sword, not perfectly balanced, unenchanted save for minor strength and unbreaking charms, and he felt clumsy and weighed down. He did not have a blindfold on and was circling around Felix like a cat stalked a mouse.

Charging at Felix once more Markus rose the sword above his head hoping to land a strike before Felix sensed it coming. He had no such luck and in seconds was on the ground, a thin line cut into his cheek by the razor sharp blade in the ancient vampire's hand. Markus knew that what he was doing was useless, Felix always felt him coming, no matter what. Suddenly he realized something. Markus had thought that this hour long beating was a lesson in humility, when really it was another lesson in patience and control.

"Again! You have not drawn blood yet, and you will neither feed nor rest until you do."

Gathering what strength Markus shielded himself in the shadows as much as he could, this time not just focusing on hiding his body, but his presence as well. Once Markus was satisfied he was hidden at least somewhat adequately he leapt forward for what felt like the hundredth time. He would have to put forth all of his effort to even have a chance at succeeding.

He saw a quick smile cross Felix's face for just a split second before it was gone. Blade in the air Markus struck and it appeared that the ancient vampire was a fraction of a second too slow, and by the time Felix had pinned Markus with his blade to the young vampire's throat Markus had managed to make a tiny scrape on Felix's right arm, technically drawing blood.

"You let me draw blood." Markus knew that he was nowhere near good enough to even come close to drawing the blood of the ancient vampire.

"I did. Why?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Wrong, no feeding until you come up with a satisfactory answer. You already know the answer, as well."

"Like hell I do." Markus grumbled under his breath as Felix walked away from the stone hall.

Markus sat down to meditate and think about what Felix had told him. They had spent five months in close company with each other and lately Felix had been making him do more and more things like this. Asking difficult questions that required much thought and meditation. This question was not quite so difficult as the others, and within a half hour Markus had worked on adding layers to his Occlumency, and discovered that Felix was correct when he told Markus he already knew the answer.

Seeking out Felix where he knew he would be at this time of night he approached the library section of the property. The library was old, and had not been updated in a few centuries, but still covered a broad array of topics. Felix sat in the back, dozens of old tomes surrounding him, as he catalogued them based on their subject matter. Felix liked to have organized libraries on his properties, if they had a library. It was easier to search for the more esoteric knowledge when a list of all books he possessed, which topics they covered, and where they were located, was kept up to date.

"You let me draw your blood in the duel because it was never about the blood. It was never about me being able to stand up to you, I'm hopelessly outclassed there. It was about me realizing I needed to cloak myself in the shadows first. I needed to learn to back off and utilize the resources at my disposal. To not charge ahead blindly and foolishly."

"Good, Markus. It was a lesson I learned the hard way, and a lesson I never forgot. Do not ever forget it, although I fear you will have to learn it the hard way too. Come."

And with that Markus followed Felix out of the library and onto the grounds of the estate. They walked until they came to a small garden with a rock cairn carefully erected around it.

"Sit, and be quiet. Feel the energy in this place, and tell me what you feel."

As it was still night Markus had no problem being outside, and Felix never had any problem with the sun anyway. Markus immediately sat and began to meditate, probing the area with his magic, but doing so nearly subconsciously. He could feel and register large, no _huge_ amounts of death magic residue, and also lots of vampiric magic residue. Investigating further the vampiric magic had the distinct signature of Felix, but also mixed with another similar signature, but different.

"I feel your magical signature, but mixed with another similar signature, and lots of death magic residue."

Felix opened his eyes, briefly locked eyes with Markus and closed them again, sighing he said, "This is where my sister died. Over two millennia ago. She was the last of the Drakul blood, along with myself. She fell fighting a massive werewolf pack."

"Werewolves?" Markus was shocked that Felix was being so open and loose, normally he was rather uptight and sometimes formal, but he was obviously remembering what exactly had happened.

"Yes, it was my fault that they were here. Alexander had told me of a pack nearby, and I had gone the night before and attacked them. I was foolish, by rushing in to meet them in battle I ignored several advantages I could have pursued. Because I did not pursue these advantages some of the more powerful werewolves survived, and tracked me back to this property."

Felix's voice was filled with remorse and guilt, even more than two thousand years later. He continued, "They followed me back to here, and as the sun rose they launched their attack. I was so arrogant I thought I could win the battle, even after being exhausted from my fight the night before. I was losing. Badly. I was gravely injured when she came and rescued me. They tore her apart, she died to save me. Her last words were a shouted "RUN!" I have never forgotten what my arrogance has cost me. I never will forget. I pray to the Old Gods that you do not either, Markus."


	14. Chapter 13

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

I had not planned on starting this chapter at this time, I had instead planned to wait a few days. Who knows, it might be a few days, this noisy new keyboard is pissing me off.

Felix had left Markus there near the cairn to meditate further. And he did. Markus was deep in thought by the time the sun began to crest the horizon, and did not even acknowledge that he was in the sun until it was high overhead. Markus knew that he would have to be strong in order to not disappoint Felix, and that he had to be strong to protect himself from all the coming dangers.

Markus had been having trouble lately, magical trouble. It was their fifth month into the six month stay in the out of time stream estate, and wand spells were getting harder and harder to cast. Markus had taken to the new vampiric magic like, well, a vampire to it's prey. Despite his quick learning in that area, and his quick bloodmagic he would still be behind the other NAAA vampire students, but ahead in the bloodmagic. The vastly overwhelming majority did not attempt any rituals until they had proper schooling, the danger of the first ritual seeming to be enough of a deterrent. Not so for Markus, he had started years ago, and kept up a rather steady pace, with some breaks in between.

But now his 'normal' magic was becoming harder and harder to use with his wand. He had managed and was making progress with simple wandless magic, such as slowly levitating objects, closing doors or drawers, or lighting small fires. After several long discussions with Felix it was decided that his Holly and Phoenix feather wand no longer accepted Markus as it's master. Markus had simply changed too much from the timid eleven year old boy that the wand had chosen to be it's master. It was probably the vampire bloodmagic finally completely settling and his system becoming totally undead, Felix had said that this process would take a few months, especially for the unique types of cells in his body, and the remote ones. Now Markus was 100% Vampire. His old wand no longer accepting him, and refusing to work for him was not particularly good news at all for Markus. He would have to find or create a new wand in two months, including his last month on the property.

Markus had been deep in the library for nearly a week straight when Felix approached him, inquiring of his progress in making the new wand. They had decided that a new, personalized wand would be the most beneficial and powerful for Markus. The only problem was that Markus was lacking the necessary components, knowledge, and skill to craft a wand that he would be happy with, and he would be for the foreseeable future.

He had, however settled for a sort of intermediary wand that would serve him well enough for the next few months or years, and would allow him to still practice and increase his wand magic skills and total magical reserves. Plus the magical artifact creating skills would be beneficial later, he was already planning on taking the related course at NAAA but Felix had recently informed Markus that every member of the Drakul bloodline had become a master swordsman, and also a master of some other branch or sub-branch of magic. Each one had forged their own unique, and powerful sword by the time they were a century old. This did not worry Markus, he had plenty of time.

"How comes the wand-making research, Markus?" Felix seemed genuinely curious; he had at least sufficient knowledge in wand-making. He had made his own, and doubtlessly countless backups that were each as strong as the one he used every day.

"I'm going to make a less personalized, more generic wand that will choose me as it's master because I created it. Nothing too fancy yet, I lack the time, skill, knowledge, and appropriate ingredients for such a highly personalized wand. I'm planning on using Ash for the wand itself and some of my hair bathed and washed in my blood as the core."

"That should all work fine, especially for a wand that will see heavy use over a short time period. The Ash will provide durability and power, while the core will make it magically up to such heavy use as it will surely see. I can not see it lasting longer than a year, so by then you should either have strong back up wands prepared, a new personalized wand prepared, or be ready to immediately start creating the new wand."

With that parting statement Felix went on his way. Markus did not know, nor really want to know what Felix had been doing during the week off from his normal routine, due to the necessity of having a functioning wand. He had not had his normal routine with Felix since his Holly and Phoenix Feather wand quit working altogether, and they had decided in a short conversation that as long as he kept up his own practice and meditation that he would not fall far behind, well farther behind than he already was compared to the other vampire students. As it was Markus would be relying slightly on the family name of Drakul to protect him from the bloodthirsty vampires, but his fighting skills were increasing every day, as were his repertoire of spells to pull from, and arsenal of bloodmagic and vampiric magic.

Markus had finished all of the research required for the creation of this basic wand, and was going to start the process the next night, when the sun was fully below the horizon. He planned to spend the rest of the day preparing the potions that would be necessary to bathe and wash the wand in once the binding of the core and wand had been completed. This was a vital step to ensuring the wand was not brittle to large amounts of magic being channeled through it, and Felix had left no room for debate on the subject of if his wand needed the full potion treatment. Markus agreed with Felix, it did need the full treatment if it was supposed to last any real length of time.


	15. Chapter 14

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Writing will be very slow in the next little while, unless I can get myself my own computer for it. Also I am reconsidering major, major plot points to the story line, and will probably be undergoing an entire rewrite of the story. Nothing too much will change, expect a few more chapters about the Forest, Chamber, Room of Requirment, and with the Tribe. I am hoping to also add more emotions, 'perspective', and 'worthwhile details.' Keep in mind I post what I write, I do not edit or beta or anything else. These chapters are essentially a rough draft for the final story, and definitely subject to change. The rewrite will be more 'telling' as opposed to the 'showing' that I've been doing.

Enjoy this chapter. Lots of conflict. Read and Review. They are massively helpful, and are the main fuel and inspiration for the more detailed rewrite.

It was two weeks before the estate was scheduled to rejoin the time stream. Time magic was always tricky, and the ambient time magic given off when real time altering spells or magic was cast was enough to usually disorientate anyone nearby or caught in the magical field, until they became used to it. Luckily for Markus, he was already accustomed to the foreign magic, due to his time in the Chamber of Secrets Time Distortion Field, and the Room of Requirement. The time magic sickness would last varying lengths, really depending on the overall magical strength of the afflicted magical being. Some species were less affected than others, such as the goblins, and dwarves. Both seemed to have very little reaction to time magic.

Humans could be conditioned to have no response, through exposure to minor time magic over an extended time period.

It was around noon, and Markus was walking around the perimeter of the estate, practicing sensing the magics in the wards and defenses, when it began.

It was slow at first, tentative knocking on the wards, very subtle, just a simple tap, as one would knock on a door.

These 'taps' soon turned into slightly firmer knocks, and then full-fledged hits against the wards.

The wards became visible, a shining, pulsing dome of magic covering the entire estate, just as Felix appeared next to Markus, grabbing him by his shirt collar, and disaparrating to the main section of the manor.

"What the hell is going on, Felix?!" Markus half yelled, half whispered. Felix had motioned for him to be quiet, and he was doing his best.

"The wards are under attack, specifically the time magic wards keeping us out of the time stream."

"Who the hell would be attacking here, who would even know of it's existence?"

" I have some ideas, and they probably do not know that this is my estate." The whole manor shook as Felix finished speaking, and both vampires could feel massive amounts of magic in the air around them, slowly building up tension.

"The time wards are about to fall, we will rejoin the time stream, probably very violently. Brace yourself."

As Markus raised his mental and magical defenses Felix appeared to do nothing on the outside. But Markus could feel the massive magical force building in him. Roiling, powerful magic, just waiting to be released on their unlucky, and probably unsuspecting foe.

As the manor shook again the massive chandelier began to fall, but was suspended in it's place by a mere look from Felix. Markus could tell by the slightly angry look in his eye that Felix was in his battle mindset, ready to spring into action any second, and defend what was his.

The time wards had finally fallen completely, and the entire estate violently was propelled back into the time stream. Small explosions were popping off randomly due to simply too much condensed time magic in such a small area.

Felix crouched down to a ready position, raised his wand and began to activate some of his extensive bloodmagic work related to heightening his already powerful senses.

"Two dozen magical signatures, all relatively powerful, but nothing exceptional. About half a dozen non-magical as well, and one goblin signature. Markus, you will go into the basement now, take the practice wand you've been using, and a sword."

Markus fingered the practice wand in his hand. Over the past month or so he had gotten used to using it, but it was not powerful nor durable enough to last in a battle, especially a possibly prolonged battle with this many combatants. Leaving the entrance hall they were in, Markus slowly moved his way down the hall towards the door leading downstairs.

Pushing small tendrils of his magic outwards he tried to sense the magical signatures Felix had told him about. The tendrils were small enough to probably escape notice by any of the attackers, or so Markus hoped.

As the real wards of the manor shook and began to crumble Markus felt a massive telepathic urge from Felix to hurry up and get to the basement, where the muggles they had been feeding off of were being stored, and to prepare himself for combat.

Staying low to the ground and summoning his sword to him he was at least somewhat prepared for when all of the windows and glass inside the house shattered at once.

Getting another telepathic signal from Felix telling him that the wards had completely fallen, and that their foe was either more powerful, or more prepared than they had initially thought, Markus reached to open the basement door.

As he was still unusued to the telepathic communication, his awareness had slightly dipped, and due to that he never sensed the incoming attack.

An enchanted, silver- tipped crossbow bolt struck him deep in his right shoulder muscle; luckily it was not poisoned, as the centaur arrow had been in the Forest, when he was just setting out in his new life.

It still tore through his pale, dead skin, embedding itself in the muscle.

Immediately turning and raising a shield as he turned Markus came face to face with a human wearing an odd set of grey armor. The man wore a grey dome shaped helmet, covering his skull and side of his head, but leaving most of the face unprotected, a grey steel chestplate with an emblem on it that Markus had never seen, and covering his legs he wore grey military styled pants with what appeared to be basic protective threadmagic weaved into them. He had an enchanted blade at his hip, but Markus could not sense the enchantments on it in such a short time period.

Having apparently already reloaded his crossbow the unknown attacker brought it to bear on Markus, they were about 10 meters apart in the hallway, and little cover was available.

Markus, however, was confused. He could sense the magic in the bolt buried in the back of his shoulder muscle, and the magic on the armor and crossbow of the attacker, but no magic from the man himself. Either the man was incredibly proficient at masking his magic, or he was in fact not magical. That would go along with what Felix had said about a half dozen non magical life forces being present, but it was still confusing as to how a muggle had ended up with all of the enchanted gear, and on a strike team against a magical estate.

As Markus saw the man ready his crossbow and bring it up to fire again he dove to the nearest cover he could find in the hallway, an overturned table that was slightly charred from magical fire.

Quickly dousing the flame Markus erected a more powerful, stationary shield over his position, and called his vampire magic to his wand hand. He had just fed that morning, and had an excess of bloodmagic/ vampire energy in his system. This would usually either go to building his magical stores of vampire energy, but was now being put to use.

Charging the now familiar bolt of red energy to his wand Markus saw the armored man down the hallway exhale and fire the crossbow. Flying down the hallway unusually quickly due to the enchantments on the crossbow itself the bolt hit Markus's shield dead center, and exploded on contact.

His shield fell as he realized the bolt had been especially enchanted to break shields, as it vaporized itself and with a small explosion shattered his shield.

Raising himself over his covered position Markus raised his injured wand arm up. The bolt in his shoulder had made any movement painful, but Markus had been able to block out the pain with his occlumency, and natural healing magic as a vampire. This helped tremendously with being able to focus on his attacker, while still trying to sense the other presences around him.

As he finished gathering his magic he jabbed his wand and whispered "_Sanguinem Fulmen" _and watched as the blood red bolt of vampire magic sped down the hallway and caught the man square on the crossed Sword and Wand emblem on his chestplate.

Denting the plate and appearing to knock the wind out of his attacker, Markus watched as he went down to one knee. Markus could see the brilliant flashes of light flashing against the wall opposite the doorway to the entrance hall, and could feel large amounts of magic being thrown around. Occasionally the hallway would shake and rumble from a particularly destructive spell thrown in the larger battle taking place in the room adjacent to the hallway Markus was in.

Clenching his jaw against the pain in his shoulder that was slowly overcoming his ability to block out Markus knew that he had to press his advantage and end the engagement as soon as he could.

Using his vampire abilities and bloodmagic Markus sprinted down the hallway, raising his practice sword he had summoned when Felix had warned him earlier. Rushing into a swordfight with an injury on his preferred arm, and having no idea the training or skill level of his opponent was not the best idea, but Markus realized it was one of few options.

Due to his speed he had an advantage over the non-magical man, who was just now rising from his knee and drawing his sword. Markus was a few feet away from him when he reached his full combat ready stance.

Turning all of his momentum from his charge Markus shifted into a two handing strike that would neatly cleave the man in two at about the bicep level the man raised his blade to parry.

Metal ringing on metal they began a deadly dance of strikes, blocks, and counter-strikes.

Looking into the snarling, angry face of the man in front of him Markus could see the obvious hate in the man's eyes.

"You'll die by my blade, vampire filth." The pure venom in the man's voice was not particularly surprising to Markus, many people hated vampires with a passion. But still how did a muggle become so involved with what was usually magical groups, and the vast majority of which were political and did not have violent strike forces, such as the one attacking Felix and Markus.

The man rotated his blade in his hand, as it was locked with Markus's and using brute strength was able to toss both blades to the side.

It was obviously a practiced move as the hate-filled man tackled Markus and pinned him against the ground.

The situation had very quickly turned against Markus, and the bolt in his shoulder jarred with the impact on the ground, breaking off and embedding the tip in his muscle tissue.

The man laid into Markus with heavy punches to his face. Winding back for a particularly hard punch Markus braced for the impact, and still felt his jaw shatter.

With a roar of pain from his shoulder and face Markus channeled all of the magic he could pull to himself and prepared to send it outwards in every direction.

As he was doing this the entire hallway shook and partially crumbled as he heard Felix yell an impressive bombarda maxima, in the entrance hall.

Pushing his advantage as the man on top of him was slightly off balance Markus launched his magical attack. As the off balanced man was thrown off of him partially Markus leaned up and lunged as best he could.

The man's helmet had fallen off at some point, probably when he tackled Markus and they had struggled for a few moments, and Markus took his chance. Plunging his fangs deep into the man's neck Markus drank the lifeblood from the muggle.

Now battered, exhausted, and being drank dry the muggle struggle as much as he could, but was unable to pull away from Markus. Feeling the man lose consciousness and go limp Markus could feel the invigorating blood restore his depleted stock of vampire magic.

His blood bolt spell had partially drained the available vampire magic, as had the wound in his shoulder, and later jaw. He could feel the tip of the crossbow bolt being slowly, very slowly, pushed out of his body by his magic. It was a very painful process, as was his jaw slowly knitting itself intact.

Despite the incoming bloodmagic to restore his stock, it was being depleted as quickly as it came in. Dropping the now completely drained body Markus rose and stumbled slightly to the door to the basement, his original objective, before the interruption. He was lucky none of the other attackers had stumbled along into the middle of his fight with the muggle man, as he was very unsure if he could take on another trained vampire hunter, even a muggle.

This was an eye-opening and unnerving realization for Markus. He had felt himself vastly superior to muggles in every way, until his encounter moments ago. The damage inflicted upon him by the muggle was still not repaired completely, and would be painful for several days afterwards. He had beaten the man in a moment of luck and good timing.

Entering the stone chamber, vaguely reminiscent of a much smaller Chamber of Secrets Markus approached the cells containing the muggles they had been sustaining themselves off of. Not many were left, maybe a dozen or so. That would have been enough to last them the last two weeks, especially with the available supply of bottled and preserved blood.

Thinking of the chamber had reminded Markus of his familiar, Cygnus. He could not sense Cygnus through all of the magical disturbances still taking place upstairs, but he had been off hunting in the small wooded area on the estate when the attack had started.

He was venomous and crafty enough that he would be fine on his own; they would link up after the battle.

Grabbing a muggle woman from the cell Markus brought her in and bit her neck. Feeding off of her would give him enough excess vampire magic to heal his injuries, and with one or two more victims drained completely he would be able to replenish his vampire magic, and regular magic stock to an acceptable level.


	16. Chapter 15

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Another chapter for y'all. Will resolve some of the conflict from last chapter. Any reviews are appreciated, especially some about the fight and how it was written last chapter.

As the figure descended down the stairs Markus gathered his magic to him once more, and prepared to channel it through the wand. His recharged vampiric magic and aching, but healed injuries left him at least somewhat confident in his ability to defend himself now, especially from his current position behind some basic shields and cover.

Charging another blood bolt spell he melded with the shadows behind his makeshift barrier, and readied himself.

"I can still see you there, Markus. The battle is done, and I see you had quite the time of it upstairs. Quite a dent in that chestplate, hmm?"

Felix was alone, and seemed perfectly fine. He showed no signs of any injuries, or even being tired at all. The entire battle had taken nearly fifteen minutes from the windows shattering to Felix walking down the stairs.

Markus was impressed with Felix, he knew the ancient vampire was incredibly powerful, but he did not see evidence of this so often. In reality it was not all that impressive that he showed no sign exhaustion or tiredness, he was after all a quite powerful wizard even before being turned into a vampire, millennia ago.

Markus stepped out from the shadows, releasing the power he had built up back into his body, to go back into the store of vampire magic.

"Who were they? I saw the emblem, but I don't recognize it from anything I've ever seen or read about." Markus was over all, very confused about the whole ordeal.

"The Knights of the Wand and Blade. One of three Orders, dedicated to hunting and killing various species such as vampires and werewolves, and also dark and black magic users. Necromancers, and even bloodmages are hunted by these orders as well."

"They most certainly did not know that this estate belonged to me, and I believe they have been working at the wards for a long time, probably most of our stay here.

Great. This was exactly what Markus needed, more enemies. The Ministry in Britain still had bounties and warrants out for his head, or arrest. Dumbledore assumed him to be dead, but no doubt would figure out he was not so dead in the future, meaning he would have to contend with what was left of the Order of the Phoenix, which according to Felix's spies and informants been split in somewhat of a schism. With Voldemort and his growing Death Eater forces to contend with as well as any number of enemies he would probably encounter if he did go through with his schooling at NAAA.

While he had many enemies, and apparently even more were being added to the list simply because of his existence, he also had allies as well. Cygnus would certainly be there along the way with him, as would Felix. And Felix was more than powerful enough to protect the both of them. Yet his enemies did vastly outnumber them, unless Felix was willing to use his private army of vampires and servants at his disposal. For some reason Markus thought this highly unlikely, as Felix had only done so twice in the past three millennia. He much preferred to solving his own problems his own way.

"The one I killed was a muggle."

"That doesn't surprise me. The three Orders are known for recruiting muggles and training, indoctrinating, and arming them against their chosen enemies. Many are very religious and highly driven individuals. They make up for their lack of magic with their training and enchanted items."

It was making sense to Markus, and as angry as he was about multiple organized orders existing solely for the purpose of purging the world of 'dark' and 'evil' creatures, he could do little about them, until he was trained and powerful enough.

"We will have to step up your training to accommodate this threat. Three of the attackers managed to get away, and I have no way of knowing if they discovered or sensed your presence here. If so they will undoubtedly start a file on you as well."

Markus would have to step up his training, as he knew he barely won his brief fight with the muggle.

"Three escaped?"

"Three escaped, one was captured, you killed one of the non-magical ones. I killed the rest. The goblin signature I detected earlier was the one I captured; we will be interrogating him later. You will learn the fine art of information extraction."

Fantastic. He was going to learn to torture people. Markus was surprised to find that this didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. In fact, it did not bother him at all. These people came to kill them simply for existing, nothing more. Markus was sure that it would deeply disturb his old friends, even his old self, if they ever learned of what he was doing or what he had become.

Following Felix up the stairs they parted ways and both went to pack what belongings they had brought with them for their little journey out of the time stream. They had snapped back into the time stream, and because it had been pulled back in, instead gently reinserted, as was the plan, it had been quite violent.

Most of the manor, especially near the entrance hall and the ground level was destroyed, or precariously close to crumbling down. While Felix had cast some spells to insure that the manor would stand adequately long enough for them to pack their belongings, everything they would need or want, anything valuable or important on the estate, and the muggles they had been feeding off of, before the manor fell down around them.

Felix would certainly rebuild it at some point, or at least build something on the property. The main wards around it were still intact, just the time wards had been wiped away, and a small pathway had been blasted through the main wards. This would be easily fixed, and Felix would probably even take the opportunity to enhance the wards around the property, make them more powerful and all around more resistant.

Markus packed all of his belongings into a magically enhanced trunk Felix had given him; it was coded to his blood, and would violently react to any other being attempting to open it. Markus had been researching enchantments and bloodmagic enchantments that would allow the trunk to decipher if his blood had been taken forcibly or willingly, but they were admittedly out of his knowledge and skill level for the foreseeable future.

Markus made sure to grab his bow and enchanted arrows from his room; he had neglected his practice with them, and would be sure to step up his training to include the bow again. Meeting back up with Cygnus in his room he shrunk down his trunk and put it in his pocket.

Changing into robes that would be appropriate for wherever they were going Markus strapped his sword to his hip, bow to his back, and with Cygnus wrapped around his neck and aching shoulder he left to meet up with Felix, just outside the manor.

As he went downstairs from his room in the manor he could easily see the destruction the battle had brought to the manor. While it was warded somewhat, the property was warded much more. The manor itself was never intended to have such a magical battle take place. It was only supposed to be a hidden safehouse, a place to stay when necessary, or when visiting the cairn for Felix's sister.

As such it was rather unsurprising that the only thing keeping the manor standing were thick columns of visible magic supporting the second level and roof.

Carefully avoiding the wreckage in the halls and entrance hall Markus stepped out from what was once the door, but was now only a large smoking hole in the wall, and stood next to Felix.

It had been only three hours since the attack had started, and as it was still day time Markus was beginning to feel the massive exhaustion setting in.

"We will be going to my primary base of operations, there we will be able to continue your training and recuperate. In a few months' time, if you are ready, you will be going to the NAAA."

It was very much a statement, Markus had no input on it at all. Felix had chosen that Markus would go to the NAAA, and if he did not survive then he was not strong enough to be Prince Drakul after all. So Markus would attend the NAAA and would come out either a more powerful vampire, or he would simply not survive.

Grabbing onto Felix's elbow as he prepared to apparate to his base, wherever it was, Markus was excited. He would be able to create his own wand at the facilities he was sure Felix had wherever they were going. He keep training and becoming more powerful, especially when he went to the NAAA, and he would be able to do his own magical research and experiments soon enough.


	17. Chapter 16

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Another chapter for y'all. I know I spoke of a rewrite earlier, and that is still pretty much planned, just not for right yet. Hopefully will write another 4-5 chapters for all y'all today. Maybe more. Enjoy, read, review.

A crack split the hot, dry air as Markus and Felix and their assorted muggles and prisoner arrived at their destination. With a lazy wave of his wand the muggles popped away, as did the captive Knight. To say Markus was surprised would be a vast understatement. One would expect discretion and subtlety when dealing with such an ancient and powerful vampire. Which is what made Felix's choice of base of operations quite surprising. It was no dark castle in the woods and mountains of some dark country, as one would expect from the Dracula legends.

About a kilometer away from where Markus and Felix stood Ayers Rock rose high into the sky.

"Bloody hell." Markus muttered. Why would the vampire pick Ayers Rock, of all places?

"It's perfect. I know the Australian climate may not be perfect for a vampire, but the location itself is." Felix and Markus had started to traverse the rocky path that they had appeared on, towards the great rock.

"It's filled with caves, caverns, tunnels, and alcoves. Heavily warded, very heavily warded."

"What about the muggles who come to see it?" Markus knew it was a muggle tourist attraction, and even the aboriginal tribes of Africa revered it.

"Heavily, heavily warded. Part of your training will be to sense and find all of the wards, and to make a list. Have you tried sensing them yet?"

Markus had not in fact tried sensing them, because he didn't sense any magic at all, apart from his own, Cygnus's and Felix's magic. Sending out his tendrils of magic, prying and peeking all around him Markus did not think that he would pick any up, after all a kilometer away was plenty of room, maybe they had not passed the wards yet.

As his magic reached out Markus stumbled and nearly collapsed as he felt the sheer power of the wards. He could feel thousands of individual charms, shields, wards, and runes, all of them placed by Felix, or someone very closely related to Felix by blood and magical signature. However it was not just the sheer quantity, but the quality of many of the wards.

The wards were all tied together, being able to transfer magic from some to others, as was necessary. And Markus could tell they were all regularly powered or strengthened. More were probably periodically added, especially muggle repelling or mind magic spells.

"Th-that's ridiculous." Markus barely managed to utter, "so much power." Felix simply smirked at him, his family and bloodline had been at Ayers rock for a long time, and had faced many dangers and invasions from their rock-fortress. Make no mistake, the rock was a true fortress, it could last a siege indefinitely, sustaining mortal and immortal inhabitants through any invasion, plague, or disaster. The wards were extensive and numerous, and very powerful. Sometimes the muggles could even see the magic floating in the air, when enough magic was being pumped through the Ley Lines.

It was all somewhat overwhelming for Markus, which was understandable.

"Massster, my ssssskin itchessss." Cygnus could obviously feel the massive amount of magic in the air as well.

The magic felt like a dam that had burst, but it was as if the dam had been completely invisible prior to bursting. On the surface Markus could not even feel any magic, but when he took a deeper look he was in the middle of a sea, calm but fierce, pleasant, but it could erupt into a gusting hurricane of magic at any moment.

As they walked Markus began to examine the wards further. He could feel death magic, dark magic, light magic, runic magic, offensive magic, defensive magic, charms, blood magic, vampiric magic, thread magic, regular magic, and all of them in varying quantities. If the sheer magic powering and sustaining the wards were converted into electricity it would be enough to power a major city. And that was how much power the wards needed.

But at this point, Markus was noticing, the wards were not simply wards. With so much magic it had become at least a semi-sentient defense system. And Markus had no doubt as to who was in total control of the defense system.

Felix had continued to smirk towards him during their entire trip, which was coming to an end as they approached the rock. He knew that Markus was feeling most of the wards, but also he knew that Markus had not sensed the most amazing part, the runic and crystal arrays that turned Ayers Rock from a magical fortress into a magical battery and generator.

Markus had been wondering about where all the power came from, and had asked Felix just that very question.

"Rune and crystal arrays all over the world, and quite a few right here, all contribute to the sheer amount of magic required to power the wards. They collect magic and through some very precise devices of my own invention they transmit the pure energy directly into the ward stone."

"However, this equates to only about half of the magic required to run the wards annually. I provide another quarter of the required magic."

"What about the last quarter of it?" Markus had no idea where the last quarter of the magic could be coming from, but had a feeling that the answer laid deep inside the rock fortress they were now climbing.

"Ley Lines and magical generators."

"Magical generators?" Markus had never heard of 'magical generators' before.

"Complicated runic and threadmagic crystal arrays that are magically self-sustaining and create some magic left over. While it is not much magic left over, in a high enough quantity it is sufficient."

"That's amazing." Markus breathed. The wards were self-sustaining, to an extent. This meant that they avoided the problems wards and enchantments of the like typically had when left dormant. Typical wards and enchantments would lose power and eventually break down completely. Not these wards, they would be able to generate enough magic to keep themselves standing, albeit at a depleted level with no additional magic, but still standing.

As the vampire duo reached the end of the path they stood at the very base of Ayers Rock. Thankfully for Markus it was still night time in Australia, but he could sense the dawn was near.

Felix, standing next to Markus, drew his wand, and a small silver blade. Slashing a few quick cuts into his own palm Felix smeared his hand across the rock in a sweeping, arching pattern. With his wand in his other hand he traced a quick runic design about a foot below the blood smear, and finished it with a pulse of his pure magic. This activated any wards that had gone dormant while he was away, and also opened one of three entrances/ exits to the rock fortress.

As Felix finished pushing his magic into the wards to top them off, so to speak, the rock that his blood had touched, and the rock within a meter or so began to slowly disappear. When it was completely gone, about ten seconds after the process had started a long cave like tunnel was in front of them.

As they began to walk into the tunnel the rock reappeared behind them, and a cool, female voice sounded from a small crystal that lit up in the upper corner of the tunnel.

"Welcome back Master Felix, the wards are running at optimum power and efficiency. All necessary chambers have been prepared for your stay."

As the female voice spoke magic crystals lit up all along the upper corners of the tunnel, providing dim lighting all the way down its length.

As they continued walking they passed many other smaller tunnels that branched off, going up and down, and also the same level they were on.

"There's a few hundred kilometers of tunnels in the Rock, total. And many caves and caverns. In many of them are my magical experiments, it would be best for your safety and health if you avoid any area that I have blocked off."

Markus, while he had been a very independent person before becoming a vampire was not quite as fiercely independent anymore. He recognized that he needed assistance and aid as he transitioned into a vampire, and Felix was a great asset and ally. He understood that the experiments Felix had ongoing in the caves were likely very high level blood, soul, death, or some other dangerous type of magic. And so it would be best if he avoided the off limits areas.

The duo came to a stop a few hundred meters away from the entrance to the tunnel, and now stood at the entrance to one of the offshoot tunnels, branching off into darkness.

"This section of tunnels and caves I do not use. They will be your personal quarters, with room for experiments and libraries, and whatever you see fit to add. I will be busy for the next week, you will not see me. By the time I see you next I expect you to have completed your temporary Ash wand. You must have time to personalize and become accustomed to it before attending the NAAA."

This would not be terribly hard for Markus. He had the wood he needed, a portion of an ash- tree limb that had fallen that he had obtained in the small forest on the estate, before the Knights had launched their ill- fated invasion.

Perhaps that was where Felix would be the next week. He had after all captured one of the Knights, and they had planned to interrogate them. But that did not matter right now, right now what Markus needed was sleep.

He slipped into blissful unconsciousness as the sun broke the horizon, and as Felix entered the chamber containing the bound and stunned Knight.


	18. Chapter 17

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Hoping to get another six or seven chapters done tonight. Markus works on the wand situation in this one. Also might be getting a couple proofreaders/ editors on board to run plot and stuff by. Hopefully will hit possibly 40k words tonight. Read and Review y'all, even a simple one is very encouraging to me.

Waking up the next night Markus could feel the hunger present in all vampires gnawing away at him. Checking his stores of vampire magic he realized he was quite low, recovering from the fight had drained him as he finally slept some. Taking his trunk from his robe pocket he set it on the ground and enlarged it.

Retrieving a few different items from it he set them out in front of himself Markus stretched his sore shoulder, and opened and closed his jaw as he slowly rubbed it. Having a crossbow bolt lodged into his shoulder and his jaw broken had taken nearly all of his vampire magic to heal, and opening a bottle of blood from his trunk he drank deeply.

The bottled blood was never as good as fresh, but stasis charms ensured at least some quality in the blood. It sated his hunger for the moment; he would have to rely on the bottled blood for the next week or so until Felix was back.

Finishing the bottle of blood and his stretches Markus looked down at the assorted items and containers in front of him. A bough of ash wood with plenty of material for a wand, a thread magic thread made from his hair that he had made when he decided it would be the base of the core of his temporary wand, and a container of his blood.

Conjuring a crude, hasty desk in his nearly completely bare room he moved the items to it, and conjured an equally crude and hasty desk. Time was of the essence if he was to correctly create his wand.

Going back to his trunk he pulled out even more items, two small journals, a quill, some ink, his cauldron, and the necessary ingredients. He would need to make several potions, two of which would be fairly complex to brew. He had the ingredients for all of the potions he needed, and setting the cauldron and potion supplies in the corner moved the journals, quill, and ink to the desk.

Opening the first small leather journal he quickly skimmed through the pages and pages full of his own notes on various spells, potions, rituals, and different magics that he had come across and wished to learn more of.

Finding the pages with the potions he would need to brew he carefully reviewed the first potion. The Strengthening Potion would take six hours total to brew, and was fairly complicated, with twelve different steps or ingredients that would need to be carefully and precisely administered during the brewing.

Immediately setting to work on the Strengthening Potion he followed the directions in his journal exactly, and using his practice wand, which would soon be no longer necessary he cast timer spells, and alarm spells to notify him when the next step was due.

Opening the other journal he dipped the quill in the ink and began to describe and write exactly what he was doing, and exactly how it went. He had started keeping journals of records of what he was exactly doing when he underwent magical rituals or procedures. It could possibly prove useful in the future, and doing it would not hinder his progress or success of what he was recording.

Feeling the alarm trigger from the spell on the timer spell in the back of his mind Markus set down the quill and walked to the bubbling cauldron. Reviewing the journal once more to reaffirm that he was on the correct step he tossed in three lacewing flies, with their wings removed, dried, and powdered which were to be used in the next step.

Stirring three times in a counter clockwise direction he took out the stirring rod and set it next to the cauldron. Moving back to the desk he finished his notes up to the current step he was on and went back to his trunk. He removed a small polished brass bowl from the insides of his trunk, and placed it on the desk next to the container of his blood, and the thread made of his hair. Pouring the blood into the container he let it sit as he went back to his journal.

Six hours after starting to brew the potion he bottled it, and sealed the bottles. Casting a few quick _scourgify_ spells on the cauldron to remove any residue or remnants from the strengthening potion he began the second of four potions he would need to finish by sunrise.

Beginning the second potion he recorded in his journals the steps he took. Turning his attention over to the brass bowl with his blood in it he carefully picked up the thread made from his hair, and slowly lowered all of it into the brass bowl. It would need to stay submerged in his blood for the next forty eight hours, the longer it was submerged the more potent and powerful the end result would be. Placing a charm on top of the bowl to prevent any spills, even if it was moved or tipped Markus slid the bowl to the corner of the desk, attended to the next step in the potion, and went back to his journal.

Three hours later he had finished the second potion, and cleaned the cauldron again. He had taken a break and downed a bottle of blood to sustain himself. He was finished brewing potions for the night, dawn was coming in a few hours, so he settled down to meditate, and began reviewing his mental defenses.

Falling asleep as dawn came near, after reviewing the bowl of blood, the bottled potions, the bough of ash, and his notes until he was satisfied everything was in order Markus was content with his progress that day. The next day he would complete the other two potions, and begin preparing the bough of ash to be turned into a wand.

Markus spent the next two days after the first day completely in his room, finding the only furnishing to be in the still sparse bathroom, and bed. He had conjured furniture that would last long enough; most conjurations would fade after a while, length of life depending primarily on the knowledge of Transfiguration, and the power level of the caster. Markus did not feel like expending the extra power necessary for a permanent conjuration, and went for long lasting temporary ones.

On the fourth day of his stay he felt comfortable enough with the process of actually creating the wand itself to begin the process.

He had explored his private section of the caves, and had put a few basic privacy and defensive wards around the entrance to the tunnel system, and the tunnel that led into his room. He had found small caves and caverns branching off, and had decided on one suitable for his needs right now.

The now wand sized piece of ash wood had been soaked and washed in the four necessary potions, had the most basic runes cast and carved into it along the length and handle of it, and the core had been properly prepared. The core of his wand was to be threadmagic thread prepared by being soaked in his blood for nearly seventy two hours, so that it would be potent and durable enough to last at least a year of heavy use. The potions also ensured that the wand itself would be durable enough for a year of heavy use. The core of his own hair soaked in his blood would make sure that the end result was personalized enough on such a primal level that it would mesh well with his magic, and that it would be powerful.

Sitting cross legged with the wood in front of him to the right, the thread in front to the left Markus mentally reviewing the spells that he would need to cast. The wood was already sufficiently charmed, prepared, and enchanted to withstand the process, and the core did not need any more special preparations.

Carefully and precisely laying the hair fiber thread on the very middle of the bough of wood he doubled and tripled back, the length of the thread was about three times the length that the wand would be. The layered thread would serve as a suitable core, provided it bonded with the wood as according to plan.

Slowly running his wand a centimeter or two above the thread laid out on the wand Markus mumbled the incantation required to bond the two together. That's essentially all a wand was, one or multiple magical ingredients or reagents bound together inside a length of wood, which would serve as a magical channel and focus for performing, magnifying, and amplifying magic cast through it.

With a flash of bright light the process was completed, Markus had created his first true magical artefact. The bow he had did not truly count, it was simply a bow enhanced by some runes and enchantments. This was an artefact, a useful tool that was purely magical. He was content with how the wand turned out, upon investigation he found that the wand was magically stable, powerful enough, and was quite simply adequate for what he needed it to be. It was simple, about ten inches long, and had some small visible runes down the spine and near the handle. Markus would carve some more to increase its magic focusing abilities, and increase the efficiency. Overall he was content with his work.


	19. Chapter 18

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Got a couple people lined up to start reading proofreading for me. How'd you like the last chapter? I really did a lot of 'showing' as opposed to the usual 'telling' heavy mix. So read and review for me, let me know where you think this story should go, and how you feel about where it's gone so far.

_Eviscero_! _Sanguinem Fulmen_!_ Bombarda_! _Protego_! Markus was currently running a quick combat exercise with his new wand. It was proficient enough with the spells he had tried. He had recorded the wand making process in his journal, and since he finished the process two days ago had been getting used to the new focus.

He had one more day until Felix would come back to inspect his work. He was unsure of where Felix was, he had felt his presence about half a dozen times over the last few days, but he had never come to visit Markus.

This was fine with Markus, but he would like to get his vampiric training back on course. He would of course need every advantage he could get to even hope to be on equal footing with his peers when he attended the NAAA, which speaking of, he would have to be on the campus in a little over two months.

When they had talked about it before Felix had mentioned his closest ally and friend having twin vampires that would be starting their first term as Markus started his. This would hopefully mean that he would have some allies in the school, possibly a mentor or two for questions regarding vampires and their culture, and strong allies were always welcome to Markus.

But they were also unknown entities to Markus, and would have to be deemed suitable and reliable enough before he could truly trust them.

Markus had been surprisingly calm all through his transformation and transition into a vampire and the vampire lifestyle that came along with it. He had adapted to it well, and would one day be quite the powerful vampire, provided he made it through his schooling, and lived sufficiently long enough.

While Felix had taken him in, and under his wing, to an extent, he was still cold and unattached to Markus, never too friendly or personal with him, except perhaps the one lesson they had at Felix's sister's cairn. And while Markus recognized what Felix had done for him, taking him in and training him, he would be just fine if Felix had never intervened. He did not truly accept or appreciate the ancient vampire. Sure Felix was the Lord of the Drakul bloodline, which now included Markus, but Markus was Prince Drakul. And what sort of Prince is content to never inherit his kingdom?

Markus was a vampire now, and the hat had been correct all those years ago. He would have done well in Slytherin House. And he was determined to see that one day he would become Lord Drakul, master of the Drakul bloodline, last survivor of the last survivor of Dracula's bloodline. Markus would, like so many other vampires one day usurp his creator, and throw off any control any being had on him.

But now was not that day. Nor would it be that day tomorrow. That day would likely not come for a very, very long time. But that mattered little. He was a vampire now, an immortal lord of the night. He could wait for his prey to be weakened, distracted, and unaware, he could wait for the opportune moment to strike. He would have to consolidate his own power to him, create his own force worthy of matching Felix. Again, now was not the time for that. Markus locked these thoughts away, deep, deep inside his mindscape, where no one would ever be able to find them, even if they had his whole mind at their disposal.

He had become quite proficient at the mind arts, taking to Occlumency like a fish to water, he continued to progress and every day would add more layers to his already impressive shields. Mind magic, and even somewhat the same for telepathy, were quickly becoming his most impressive abilities. He was quick with his wand, and becoming more adept with the sword, and was improving his bloodmagic as well. He had resumed his little projects with Necromancy on the side.

He remembered that during their stay on the out of time stream estate Felix had performed a bloodmagic ritual that would help him control a new type of Inferi. An Inferi that could be dismissed and summoned from a sort of pocket dimension of magic at will.

This was intriguing to Markus, as it would open up many possibilities for him if he could understand how it worked. But as far as Markus could tell that was a good time away from him. He had read all he could find, even one of Felix's older journals about the concept, before Felix had been able to refine his ideas and thoughts on it. Markus was unsure if Felix knew he had his old journal, but he suspected Felix knew of it.

Felix had forbidden him from doing Necromancy experiments anymore, but how was he to become more powerful, or obtain any more knowledge if he did not experiment and research? Markus was sure that if he had not already sensed it Felix would sense the Necromantic magic at work from his section of the tunnels.

But Markus simply put was bored. And he would be bored until he could start some more in depth analysis of the fortress he was currently in.

He raised his wand again and cast the same series of spells. He had been at it for hours, casting each spell with as much power as he could. He was nearly exhausted after going through this magical exercise all day, but it would just serve to strengthen him over all. He had also gone most of the night without feeding. He had been trying to accustom himself to the hunger pangs and first for blood that he would no doubt feel as a vampire. If he was accustomed to them they would not bother him so much.

He hoped that this was the case. He had also taken up practicing with his bows in the tunnel outside his main bedroom. He conjured and enchanted targets to move and to be harder to hit than a stationary target. Using the bow had made him remember the potential ally he had made with the friends he had in the Native American tribe. As a vampire, and really as who he was at his center he kept his cards close to his chest, and counted them carefully.

He was well and truly bored for the next day and night, before Felix cameback to his section of the tunnel and called for him to come out and let him inspect his wand.

"Hmm. Seems like good enough work, it should last at least a year, possibly longer. Keep it as a back-up when you make your new wand next year." Turning the wand over in his hand Felix inspected it carefully.

Handing it back over to Markus with a noise of approval he motioned for Markus to follow him.

"The nearest settlement is far away, so the muggles that you will feed off of are down that tunnel." Felix said, pointing down an offshoot of the main tunnel. Each tunnel had crystal lights in the upper corners every few meters providing dim lights, controlled by crystals linked to the others at the ends of every tunnel. "Feed as much as you need. I've been interrogating the prisoner."

"What does he know?"

"Knew. He's longer in this world. They didn't know it was my estate, and they probably now have a file on you. They just registered the spike of time magic with vampire magic, and went to investigate. It took them most of our stay to work down the wards enough to bring them down all together." Markus was kind of upset that the Knights now most likely had a file on him, but there was little he could do right now.

As Felix showed Markus around the basic areas of the fortress compound hidden inside Ayers Rock he notified Markus that he would likely be seeing less of him for the next two months, before his schooling began.

This was somewhat surprising to Markus, but not all that much. After all Felix would not want to get too attached, especially after losing his various family members of the millennia of his existence.

Felix showed Markus multiple libraries, how to operate the entrance to the main tunnel, a few bloodmagic chambers, potion laboratories, the kitchen and eating area, where the muggles for feeding were kept, practice halls for spell casting, meditation chambers, and various other rooms and chambers were.

Markus was looking forward to spending the next two months becoming as powerful as he could, learning as much as he could, and experimenting as much as he could. It would prove very beneficial for himself, he was sure.


	20. Chapter 19

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Well, here we are at chapter 19 of Night Is Long. Hope y'all have enjoyed it so far, I don't know how much more I will write tonight. Hopefully I will be writing lots more in the future. I am thinking about starting a couple more stories as well. Depending on feedback I will or will not in the near future start a HP/ Skyrim cross over, likely with the Skyrim vamps.

It was just ten days before Markus was due on campus at the NAAA. And today was to be the day he left Ayers Rock, and the safety it provided. He had packed or put all of his experiments into stasis, prepared another dozen magical arrows, brewed a half dozen different sorts of potions, prepared his mental shields, gathered all excess vampire magic he could, and he had been enchanting his robes for the past two months to be quite durable. He had even begun exploring basic threadmagic laid over top of his robes.

Markus had completed a few more bloodmagic rituals to hopefully give him an edge that would put him on par with the other students, and he had been working and spending time with Cygnus, who was growing more dangerous as he grew in size and his venom gained potency.

Rechecking his bottled blood supply, potion supply, bow and arrow, wand, his sword, Cygnus, and enchantments on his robes Markus began the long process of taking portkeys and apparating that would eventually land him exactly in the cave Felix had attacked him in so long ago.

Felix had not even bothered to send Markus off, he had simply informed him and supplied Markus with the necessary portkeys to get him from Australia to Austria to England then one to the East coast of America, from then on he would be on his own. That suited Markus just fine.

Felix had essentially given up on training Markus until it was apparent Markus would make it through his schooling, and be useful or even viable as heir to the Drakul line.

Markus was confident in his abilities, he knew better than anyone what he was made of, what drove him. He already had more foes than he could deal with, and was planning on having even more powerful foes after he took care of his current enemies. His life had certainly taken quite a few odd turns, especially these last few years for him.

In real time it had only been about two and a half years or so since he was declared guilty of causing the deaths of Ginny Weasley and Gregory Goyle Sr. But to Markus it had been over four and a half years. Now aged eighteen he had the maturity, strength, and power of about a 22 year old. It was odd at times, but Markus knew what he had done was necessary.

He looked around his tunnels for the last time in who knows how long, and tapped his wand to a runic array near where it joined the main tunnel. Tendrils of visible magic snaked their way all along the chamber, and spider webbed out from themselves. It was a sort of stasis charm that would draw power from the wards around the fortress, and would alert him if the charm was broken or disturbed in any way.

As the first portkey took off Markus prepared himself for a long journey. The journey to America would only take about a day, the journey to the school about a week, and that left him a day or two for recovery at the school.

The first portkey brought him to an old, abandoned castle in the deep woods of Austria, the ground all around it was saturated in old death magic, from what Markus could sense an old Necromancer had gathered an army of the dead and been slaughtered there.

Readying his bow Markus kept an eye on the time through time telling spells that would input the information directly into his thought stream and knowledge. He spent an hour poking through the ruins of the old castle before the next portkey activated. Feeling tugging behind his navel, and the usual compression that comes with portkey and apparation he landed smartly on the other side, back in England for the first time in over a year and a half for him.

He did not recognize where he had landed, but he stayed ready and alert. Markus had enough enemies in England between the Ministry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort, even though Dumbledore believed him to be dead. He also had up to three Orders of Knights specifically trained to kill him and beings like him, simply for existing. They would serve only to complicate all matters in the future.

Markus did not stay long in England, just long enough to finish drinking a bottle of preserved muggle blood, one of dozens he had in his trunk. The final portkey activated, and he was whisked off once more, this time all the way to the Eastern coast of the United States of America.

Markus held no illusions that any of the portkeys he had just taken were registered or even remotely legal, but no one was going to tell Felix Drakul what he could or could not do. Hell, they probably had no idea he was even in the country right now.

Markus had appeared in a small clearing in a forest. Scanning the area with his magic and a few subtle spells he concluded no one was nearby. Focusing and gathering his magic to himself he prepared to literally leap about a hundred and fifty miles to the west.

It was a vampiric skill that he had been working on for quite some time, and this very far, very very exhausting journey would be perfect. It was made more difficult by the fact that he did not know his destination just that he wanted to be about a hundred and fifty miles to the west. This journey would be a good test of his skill, and good practice for building endurance with his vampire magic.

Markus had gathered all his magic to him, and jumping into the air he landed on the shadow cast by a tall tree in the sun, and appeared to fall through. Really he was flying through the shadow realm at incredibly high speeds. Sensing his desired distance approaching mere second after jumping Markus deposited himself back into the mortal realm. That was the tiring part, the jumping in, but more so the coming back into the mortal realm was exhausting.

Markus was indeed a hundred and forty five miles away from the clearing he had jumped from. It had worked well, and he barely felt the dip in his vampire magic reserves. Taking a second to let his reserves replenish slightly he pulled his magic to himself once more.

And so Markus made the jump again, and again, until he was only about two hundred miles away from the cave he had been staying in when Felix had attacked and captured him. Or so he thought.

Twisting on the spot Markus used his somewhat impressive magical reserves to apparate the three hundred miles to the cave, it ended up being a hundred miles longer than he thought he would have to cover, which left him somewhat magically drained from his regular reserves, and all of the shadow jumping had left him starving for blood and with incredibly low vampire magic reserves.

Slumping over, now inside the cave, Markus drew his wand and began casting the necessary wards and charms over the entrance. Last time he was here he had been taken by surprise. Now he was much different, much more powerful even. And in the morning he would have made significant progress in his magical recovery from the magical exhaustion he was beginning to slip into. Opening and drinking deeply from a bottle of mixed magical and muggle blood that would restore his vampire magic reserves faster than pure muggle blood would he settled in for the night. Confident his wards would wake him up if anything approached Markus fell asleep as the sun rose for the day as Cygnus slithered off of his shoulders, where he had been most of the day as they traveled, and went off to hunt the cave for rodents.


	21. Chapter 20

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Markus gets a new friend! Well possibly friend, I haven't decided yet. Read and review for me, feedback fantastic. Posting will probably be at a slower rate for a while, but I will be writing more.

As the full moon began to dip below the horizon Markus was finishing his preparations to leave the cave. Cygnus had evidently been successful in his hunt the night before, he was hissing contentedly as he slithered his way up Markus' arm and coiled on his shoulders and neck.

Taking down the wards and basic enchantments he had put on the cave to sufficiently protect himself as he slept Markus strolled out to face the rising sun, and all the challenges that would come that day.

It would take about of week of traveling on foot to reach his destination, the North American Academy of the Arcane. This unique school would hopefully prepare him for combat and eventual victory over his laundry list of foes, which was ever increasing it seemed. It would probably prove to be a difficult journey for Markus, and it was meant to be the first trial that incoming students faced.

Reaching out to scan the area with his magic Markus was content that no threats were nearby, no one at all was nearby. Having a thought Markus took out and enlarged his trunk and began rifling through it. Even though it was carefully organized it took Markus a few moments to find what he was seeking.

Pulling out his old doeskin satchel that he had made when he stayed with the Native Americans, just a few dozen miles from where he was now, he searched through it. He pulled out the old map they had created for him, and it was slightly torn and worn down a little from it's long time of no usage in his satchel left in his trunk.

Spreading the small map out on a flat rock a few feet away from him he examined it. It did indeed have the cave he was standing near marked on it. It also had the general direction he would need to travel, a couple of rivers that he would need to traverse, and a mountain range that would only take a day or so to pass through, provided he could find the correct path through. If he did not find the correct path through the mountain range he would miss his desired arrival time by about a month.

Markus was confident that he would be able to make it through all of the obstacles, and traverse the nearly hundred miles of terrain before his deadline of noon in seven days time. Scanning and memorizing the map as quickly as he could Markus decided on the course he would take, he was currently west of the campus, and needed to be a hundred miles east.

He could try shadow jumping some of the way across, but he was certain wards would be in place against it, and he had no idea how far out the wards would be, and he was positive they would violently repel him.

No, it would be best to prove his worth by doing as all of the other students would do, and crossing the land on foot. The teachers of the Academy would no doubt be monitoring their progress, and judging or scoring them somehow. Markus was sure about that, and he certainly did want to impress the new teachers who would be a massive influence on his life for the next four years, provided he did in fact survive the schooling, Dumbledore, the Ministry, Voldemort, and the three Knightly Orders.

If Markus did not take advantage of each and every potential ally or advantage offered to him his life would just be all the more difficult. Markus held no doubts that the comings years would be no doubt very difficult.

Beginning his journey Markus and Cygnus set out over the hills in front of them, heading eastward. He knew in about 50 miles he would have to find a way across a surprisingly large and rapid river, according to the Native American tribe he had stayed with. A magical spring fueled the river, which served as a many mile long oasis in the heat blanched desert.

After about five miles of slightly hilly terrain Markus felt a magical presence not too far from them. It was faint, but definitely magical, and definitely intelligent. Someone older and more experienced with such low level area scrying such as what Markus was doing would have been able to tell a lot more about the signature, race, even intention, and magical power.

But so far all that Markus could tell was that the signature was south-west of him, and not too too far away. It was probably another student on their own way to the Academy, Markus decided.

He weighed his options as he continued to monitor the signature and continued eastward, at a slightly slower pace than before.

After a quick conversation with Cygnus he had made up his mind. He would seek out this magical signature, and hopefully they could be mutually beneficial at least for now, providing aid and support on the journey that was sure to be difficult.

Now moving in a sharp Southeast direction Markus continued to discern as much as he could from the magical signature. He still could not tell race, but he had decided they were definitely one of the more common magical species, and the power of the signature was unknown. Markus did, however, have a more precise location. It seemed the magical presence was coming from about five miles southeast.

Gathering his magic to him Markus shadow jumped three miles, and did a roll over his shoulder as he landed. Coming out of the roll Markus remained crouched and hidden as best he could in the harsh sunlight, in the shadow of a rock about waist high. Hopefully he had remained undetected, and he was fairly confident that he was. He still had two miles to go to reach the presence, and he and Cygnus set out once more, this time slightly slower and more cautious. It would not do to fall into any ambush or traps, after all one could hide their presence or signature completely with some practice.

As he approached Markus silently cast spells on himself, his boots, and even Cygnus to prevent any sounds or their scents from giving away their stealthy approach. In reality there was probably more that could be done to be even stealthier as he approached the magical presence that at a closer range he was able to identify as being on the lower side of above average, so slightly more powerful than your averagely educated and prepared witch or wizard. This did not worry Markus, he knew he was above average, he was confident he would be able to handle the situation no matter how the encounter went.

Crawling over the ridge just above where he could feel the signature was located Markus remained prone as he peeked his eyes over.

Somewhat surprised at what he saw down below Markus readied his wand, silently cast an invisible shield spell over Cygnus, and leapt down off the ridge.

Landing neatly the goblin who was clueless to his presence just a moment before reacted exactly how Markus had predicted he would. He raised his enchanted gun and fired, which was exactly what Markus had expected to happen, just the goblin was quicker than he had anticipated.

Markus had barely even landed when he felt the magical bolt of energy speeding towards him. Summoning his magic to him in a split second the powerful piercing spell that the goblin's gun had launched was deflected into the rocks behind them both.

Markus had never seen nor heard of any gun that could shoot spells, sure he had heard of enchanted guns, but never one that could shoot pure magic.

Feeling the impact that would no doubt leave a bruise, despite his vampire healing abilities, and hearing the rocks shatter and break Markus knew he had to diffuse the situation somehow, and quickly.

"I don't mean any harm, I assume you're going to the Academy as well?"

"Of course I am. Name's Shadowknife. That is what you will call me, no silly nicknames or anything of the sort." The goblin seemed like all goblins did, efficient and to the point. He still had his rifle out, but it was no longer aimed at Markus.

"Alright Shadowknife, I'm Markus. I could sense you here and decided it would be easier to travel in a group, safer that way."

"I suppose you're right, vampire." The goblin set the rifle aside, he had been resting and finishing his lunch time meal before finishing breaking camp and moving along for the day.

It was nearly noon as the unlikely duo set out to travel as far as they could that day. The sun was irritating Markus, but it was not as bad as he thought it would be. He had cast and maintained several spells on his body that minimized the affects, the only problem was every hour or so they had to be recast or recharged, and they were not simple spells, they required a substantial effort to keep going.

As they walked onwards, crossing the hills and ridges at an increased pace, because it was easier now, they could help pull and push each other up and over the more difficult to climb areas, without having to expend any magic that they could save incase they truly needed it.

Markus did not know a whole lot about Goblin culture, he knew that Gringotts all around the world were run by goblins, and that goblins would occasionally revolt and rebel against the wizards, but apparently it went many levels deeper, deeper than Markus realized.

The goblins used to be in complete control of the world, during the Age of Goblins, about thirty five thousand years ago. Due to their old status, and their much lower status today there was much friction politically and socially with the goblins and other races, most notably the dwarves.

Very few all dwarf settlements remained, in fact very few dwarves remained. If they were classified as muggles classified endangered animals they would not quite be endangered. While a reasonable number were left they typically did not leave their stronghold fortress cities, few of which were left.

The goblins and dwarves were at a state of perpetual warfare with intermittent ceasefires and armistices.

The current armistice had been standing for a hundred and twelve years, an unprecedented length of peace between the goblins and dwarves.

Currently the world was enjoying an almost unprecedented level of peace, at least among the magical world. The werewolves and vampires were not openly fighting currently, although tensions ran very high, and were only increasing. The dwarves and goblins had been at peace for a century, although again the tensions were running increasingly high. The centaurs and elves and other magical races had not fought any battle more significant than a skirmish against each other in about a decade, and the mortal magical beings were being surprisingly reasonable and cooperative with the other races.

Of course while all of the peace was nice it was inevitable that it would come to an end, and with the way the tensions were rising and the sides beginning to form again it would not be very long before the magical world erupted in war again.


	22. Chapter 21

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Markus and Shadowknife keep traveling, now on day three of their weeklong journey, prepare for another character to be introduced in the next two or so chapters. Read and Review y'all.

"So the runes carved on and inside the barrel are what generates the magic and the spell, and the runes on the firing pin and back of the barrel are what activate the launching spell that 'shoots' the first spell." Markus and Shadowknife had covered good ground during their afternoon of traveling, and were now settling down for the night, making a small fire hidden partially under a small outcropping of rocks they had found.

They were on course according to Markus's map, and on schedule according to their pace. Markus was taking the opportunity to question Shadowknife about the gun he had, and had used earlier. It was a shorter version of the sort of musket one would see during the 19th century, but it was purely magical.

"Yes, it is charged from the excess magic that several of the runic arrays carved into the wood of the butt and stock of the gun provide. They do not provide much magic, but it is stored in crystals embedded in the butt. I can charge my own magic into it if it runs low."

Goblins were notorious for not possessing the same magical capabilities of mortal's and other races such as vampires or werewolves. They were also notorious for being crafty, shrewd little beings. And the magical artifact Markus was holding in his hands and examining was proof of this. Because the goblins could not do magics on such a scale as humans, at least not of the same sort, they had developed other areas of magic. These other areas included runes, potion brewing, metal magic, and many others, such as weapon crafting and enchanting.

The gun Markus held was very valuable, probably had been passed from father to son. It was powerful, and albeit somewhat limited in the shots it could fire in quick succession Shadowknife insisted that that problem was easily overcome, or lessened.

It was also simply fascinating to Markus, magic always was to him, and to see magic in such a way before was always a welcome opportunity.

Shadowknife had demonstrated the guns ability for him a little while earlier, he had shot a small deer that they had seen wandering the desert looking for forage, from an impressive distance.

Markus was fascinated with the possibilities that this brought with it. If it could be done for guns and rifles could it be done for cannons? Artillery? He would have to do his own experiments, he was sure the goblins had already done theirs.

What surprised Markus the most about what Shadowknife had informed him of during their chat over dinner was that Shadowknife had created the gun himself. He had forged it all by himself, and enchanted it as well. That was why Shadowknife was going to attend the Academy, he was shaping up to potentially be some sort of enchanting prodigy, despite his self-admitted borderline interest in the magical art.

He was much more interested in espionage, cloak and dagger proceedings, and the like. However the goblin kept this held closely and tightly secret. It would not do for every person at the school to learn he intended to become an assassin or spy. This was simply smart for his own continued survival. Perhaps he would tell Markus, if they continued to become close friends and allies, now they were just acquaintances. So far Shadowknife had not seen any reason to compel him to not accept Markus as friend and ally, but only time would tell.

Markus had been also surprised by learning that Shadowknife could pick different spells to launch by thumbing over a small crystal imbedded inside the wood of the gun where the left hand would rest as it steadied the aim. Different spells drained different amounts of magic from the stores inside the stock, and the operator would be able to take away or put more power into spells, should they so choose.

This was all very interesting to Markus, and it was something he was hoping to work with Shadowknife on in the future, but he did have one question, "Why a musket? Why not one of the other muggle guns, like a machine gun?" Markus thought he might know the answer, or at least have an idea about it.

"Simply doesn't work. The magic isn't powerful enough to sustain any higher rate of fire than the top rate of the musket. The goblin armies have been rigorously testing and experimenting ever since the gun was invented by the muggles. This way is best."

That's what Markus had thought, the magic was simply unable to keep up with a high rate of fire, it needed to recharge and recuperate itself before being able to fire again, while it did not take long for it to be ready to fire or recharge it was still too long to be compatible with anything else.

Finishing off the blood from the deer they had killed Markus took first watch that night. He kept scanning the area with his enhanced night vision, the bloodmagic certainly gave him a slight edge, and with his magic. Going to Shadowknife seemed like a good decision, and it was, but only time would tell if their partnership and alliance would last. Perhaps one day they could be friends, Markus could not see any reason why not.

Recording some of his thoughts and ideas over the magical weapon that Shadowknife possessed the first watch went by quickly for Markus. He now had some experiments and tests lined up that he wanted to do, and a long list of questions about the exact runic layout of all of the runes on the gun, and indeed which runes were used, how the wood was treated to accept the high magic saturation, how the barrel was forged, and other general questions about the function of the weapon.

Switching off watch duty with Shadowknife as Markus fell asleep Cygnus slithered back from hunting. While Markus had introduced Shadowknife and Cygnus he did not feel comfortable divulging that he was a parseltongue quite yet, so Cygnus had traveled with them, but at about a quarter mile behind or away from. Markus had carefully and subtly asked that Cygnus do so, and Cygnus had agreed. This enabled Cygnus to be hunting and eating all day long, he had managed to get two voles and a small meerkat like magical creature. Cygnus did not need to feed so often as he did, but eating more, especially more magical creatures, helped him grow, and become magically more powerful and resilient.

As Markus awoke near dawn they broke down the camp and Cygnus departed from them once again, he was hoping to be able to find a few more of the meerkat like creatures today, they had been quite tasty.

Beginning their journey for the day they were coming ever closer to the river they would have to cross, and were bouncing ideas for crossing off of each other.

The time passed quickly, and at the end of the day they were at the banks of the river they would have to cross, it was about thirty feet to the other side. And it was no easy, calm river that would be simple to cross. They could travel up or down stream and see if it would be easier to cross there, but Markus doubted it. The tribe he had stayed with seemed certain that this river was very fast flowing all the way throughout its length.

The river was too fast flowing to fish in, or at least so Markus thought. Shadowknife had set up a net to catch anything passing by through it. He had set it up the night before, when they had arrived at the riverbank, and again Markus had taken first watch that night, silently meditating with spells in place to awake and alert him should anything at all happen. Working on his minds cape some more he realized that he was beginning to feel the hunger again.

He had been sated by blood from a deer, and today he had stunned and captured three small animals, that it appeared Cygnus enjoyed eating. He had drained their blood into containers, and had been drinking that all day. Deciding that it was time he retrieved a bottle of blood from his trunk, and began sipping.

He could feed off of Shadowknife, but he doubted he could be subtle enough to not wake or alert the goblin, and besides the fact that it would break all trust in their just beginning to form alliance Markus did not particularly want to. He did not know what effect goblin blood would have on a vampire, he doubted there would be any effect at all, especially any negative effect. But still Markus preferred not to take the chance, especially if it could be very easily avoided.

Deciding not to wake Shadowknife for his turn at watch duty Markus kept meditating throughout the entire night, observing and recording his own magic, and how it was acting. He periodically did this in order to safeguard against any sudden changes going unnoticed, it had not proved incredibly beneficial to him, but it was an easy thing to do that might make his life easier in the future. So Markus did not mind taking a few hours every week or so and doing it.

In the morning Shadowknife seemed unsurprised that his vampire companion had stayed the whole night awake, it was not uncommon for some vampires to go days with out rest, it was just easier for them.

Deciding to forgo a true breakfast Shadowknife retrieved his fishing net and waved his clawed hand over the few small fish caught in it, casting the goblin version of a stasis charm to last a few hours, until around noon, when he could eat them.

They could travel no farther until they crossed the river, a thirty food wide rapidly flowing monstrosity of a sheer wall of water. Should one of them fall in there was very little at all that could be done to prevent them from drowning.

However, Markus had an idea. He knew it was possible, he had just never done it before.

His plan was to shadow jump him and Shadowknife across. While Markus had done so, quite effectively with Cygnus he had never done so with another magical individual.

For a vampire shadow jumping was not very difficult, however shadow jumping with another magical being or creature soon became very difficult. As hard as it was for a vampire to look after themselves in the shadow realm it was doubly hard to watch over someone else, especially someone unfamiliar with the process and sensation of shadow travelling.

"I have an idea Shadowknife, you will have to trust me for it to go smoothly."

"Let's hear it, then."

"As a vampire, I can jump us to the shadows on the other side of the river, it will essentially be safer, and much less time consuming. However you will have to trust me, and be very compliant through the process otherwise it could end disastrously. I know this is asking a lot of you, to trust a vampire you met barely two days ago."

Pausing to think Shadowknife took a moment to sit and consider their options. Despite the warning of potential disastrous outcomes, he felt that it was acceptable to travel in this manner. Telling Markus so he stood and asked what he should do to make the process as easy and safe as possible.

Focusing and calling his vampire magic to him Markus prepared himself to jump. He had given Shadowknife a basic briefing over what was going to occur, how they would travel in the shadow realm for just a split second because it was such a small distance, and reemerge on the other side of the river, in the mortal realm.

Shadowknife seemed to understand, and was on board with the decision. The sun was just beginning to rise when Markus stepped back, grabbed him and jumped to the nearest shadow, of which there were just a few, but one was enough.

Markus did notice that it was more difficult controlling the entrance to the shadow realm with a magical creature and being with him, and also that is was about twice as hard to stay focused enough to be able to tell when to return.

A split second after they had jumped they reappeared on the other side, to anyone watching it would have been instantaneous, however there was a minute window of time that the jump took.

Indeed the reentry to the mortal realm had been many times harder than normal reentry, and had left Markus drained of his ready to use vampire magic.

Sitting down and resting on the rock whose shadow they had jumped into Markus figuratively caught his breath. Of course he had no breath to catch, and was simply recovering from the magical expenditure.

Unknown and unseen to the goblin and vampire duo a pair of golden eyes had seen the entire thing, from the beginning to end. With a curios glint in them the figure the eyes belonged to slinked off into the last shreds of darkness that were disappearing with the rising sun. The figure had been very careful to mask it's magical signature, and was interested to see how this would all turn out. He was Academy bound as well, and the duo would definitely pick up his scent or presence soon enough.


	23. Chapter 22

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the chapter, the mysterious figure from last chapter is dealt with, and that's all you get to know. read and find out. Don't forget to take a second and review, but who really reads these so I believe I'm just wasting my breath at this point. oh well. Read and Review y'all.

Markus and Shadowknife did in fact pick up the new individuals scent. Actually more accurately Shadowknife did, goblins had an innate heightened sense of smell, and also had better night vision than the average mortal witch or wizard. Also, average mortal witches and wizards had slightly above average levels of night vision and assorted senses than their mortal muggle kin. This innately heightened sense of smell allowed Shadowknife to pick up the scent on their fourth day of traveling together, three days away from their destination.

One word was all he needed to say, "Werewolf." Shadowknife was confident that it was indeed a werewolf that had been following them since at least the night after they crossed the river. It had taken him a while to detect the scent, he was only picking up a whiff or two here and there when the wind was just right and he was subtle about it. He did not wish to alert the werewolf following them that they were on to whoever it was.

They had already broken camp for the night, and Cygnus quietly had agreed with Shadowknife that a werewolf was indeed tracking them, he had picked up the odd scent a few hours earlier, but did not recognize it as werewolf because Cygnus had never been exposed to one before. Luckily for them the full moon had passed and would not be back for the rest of the lunar cycle.

Shadowknife and Markus eagerly began to plan an ambush that they could spring on their follower, and then interrogate and question them if necessary. Perhaps it would not be necessary, Markus had no way of knowing until the time came and passed. Markus had a plan for it either way, and despite the fact that it was a werewolf tracking them and the tensions between werewolf and vampires Markus was unafraid.

He himself held no prejudice against them simply because werewolves were werewolves, they couldn't help being a werewolf anymore than he could help being a vampire.

In fact Markus held very few prejudices at all, at least for any magical beings or races. Sure the mortal witches and wizards could be prejudiced, biased, judgmental, too hasty to condemn others, and flawed, but they were still magical. Which Markus believed set them above non magic folks, at least on some level.

Markus did not know exactly when he had started to feel this way, he knew Harry Potter never felt like that or expressed that opinion. What Markus would soon learn was that it was deeply embedded in the vampire mindset, it came with the territory and evolutionary instincts embedded into the virus itself.

Of course it had turned out like this, if one species was faster, stronger, immortal, magical, _and_ had been preying off of the non-magical species for millennia it was inevitable that the more gifted and powerful species would recognize its superiority over the non-magical beings.

Truly Markus knew that all magical beings were at least somewhat equal in general, with some being better at some magics than others, and vice versa, but the balance of power had always remained fairly equal.

He sought to change this. He sought to raise not vampires, but _him_ and _his_ vampires to the top, to the pinnacle of success, to the nigh unreachable heights of true power. But again this process would take many many years, he would face many foes, and he had to make sure he even survived long enough to see it happen. And to survive long enough to see it happen he needed allies, brothers in arms, soldiers, goons, thieves, killers, those unafraid to do what needed to be done, and he even needed friends along the way.

Sighing as he locked these thoughts deep into his mindscape with the others like them he knew he would have to be very very careful. He was playing a dangerous game, even just by thinking of what he wanted to achieve.

Sure, thousands of vampires and mortals alike had thoughts such as those, but his were different. They were real, they were not just thoughts and dreams of domination, they were ideas, revolutionary and controversial ideas, but provocative in a likeminded individual. They were dangerous, simply because the person having the ideas was who he was, Harry Potter, or more apt perhaps would be Markus Drakul.

With a full plan formulated for dealing with the werewolf Markus, Cygnus, and Shadowknife all had their parts to play. They had chosen a very small ravine to make camp for the night, and had lit a roaring fire. Being cooked near the fire was slabs of meat from a larger deer that they had found and killed, and also all the meat they could find from two birds they had killed, and three of the odd meerkat like creatures that Cygnus adored eating.

They would have had another three had Cygnus not 'accidentally' swallowed them.

The blood splashed around liberally, and the smell of the cooking meat were sure to entice the werewolf, who was as far as they could locate through scent and the very very slight and subtle magical signature being projected, about a quarter mile away, behind some rocks.

They made a show of going to bed exactly as they normally would, they doubted that the werewolf tracking them had knowledge or seen of Cygnus, so Cygnus was to be the backup forces in their plan, in case something went wrong. Cygnus had slithered off into a small alcove in between some larger rocks, in the position they had all agreed was best in case anything went wrong. As Shadowknife went to bed and Markus stayed up for the first watch their plan was set into motion.

By the time Markus woke Shadowknife and had him take over the watch the fire had dimmed slightly. Relighting it Markus knew that the plan was beginning to work. In the cold desert nights the temperatures dropped very low, it was very hard to stay warm unless one had a fire.

Sure warming charms helped, but most of them did not actually generate much, if any heat by themselves, most of them just trapped the heat near the body for longer. This made them of little use if one had no heat to trap in.

The wolf inside their tracker was howling, it was demanding that it go down to the ravine, and take what belonged to it. It should take the meat! Take the fire! The food and warmth that had been denied to it for two long days were gnawing at the wolf, who was gnawing at the man. Violently suppressing the wolf inside his soul the man still crept closer and closer, tempting himself more and more to actually storm the camp.

When they had switched watch duties the werewolf had been very careful not to move or alert them to his presence in any way, he had been very stealthy up to this point, and it simply would not do for that to be ruined because he was cold and hungry.

As he watched and waited he saw the goblin, who was now on watch duty begin to drift off to sleep. The goblin would nod off, wake with a slight start, stoke the fire and then try to stay awake. After this cycle repeating four or five times the goblin did not wake to stoke the fire, but stayed asleep.

This seemed like it was the chance for the werewolf, to get as close as he could and then summon some of the meat to him. But even if he had the meat that had been set to the side under stasis charms when it had finished cooking he would still be cold.

So he came up with his own plan, and began casting charms on himself. He already had charms to make him quiet as the night, and some to block his scent, but he began casting more and more, every single charm he knew that would help him here. He also cast a few basic noise dulling and silencing wards around his position, about a hundred yards away from the upper ridge of the ravine that the goblin sat atop.

The fire had been down in the ravine, but the goblin had made his own smaller fire, the one he was stoking as he tried to stay awake, however the pleasant heat from his own fire had helped put him to sleep. Or so it appeared.

With his wand at the ready the werewolf crept up on the goblin, the goblin appeared to be about the same age as the werewolf, but it was hard to judge, especially between two species so different from each other.

Creeping up slowly and silently he got past the point where Shadowknife was supposed to spring his trap, because he was so undetectable.

As he came within inches of stepping on an unwitting Cygnus Cygnus realized what was going on, and flared up to his full, admittedly impressive height. The four foot long snake was not just long, but was thick as well, and was still growing. As Cygnus flared he made his magical presence as loud as he possibly could, alerting the seemingly asleep Markus down in the ravine, and the hidden Shadowknife a few feet away.

Suppressing a yelp the werewolf was taken completely by surprise when Cygnus popped up, and swatted at the snake with a fierce backhand, his wand already raising to shoot a stunning spell at the sleeping goblin. The werewolf had felt the magical presence of the snake flare, and knew that it would wake the magic sensitive goblin. With a jab and silent incantation the dull orange light of the stunner gave the whole area an eerie glow as it flew. And fly it did, it flew across the two dozen or so feet between the werewolf and goblin, and kept flying straight through the sleeping creatures chest.

With a fizzle and small pop the illusion of the goblin flickered three times before fading away to complete nothingness, and as surprised as he was the werewolf was already on the move.

As the werewolf rolled away from Cygnus as he recovered from being struck, and struck out himself, he came up with his wand already casting spells at the dark, shadowy figure who had just appeared on the ridge overlooking the ravine. The werewolf assumed it was the vampire, and was correct in this assumption. The werewolf had been drawn into a trap and he knew it, but he could fight his way out. No one could contain the wolf inside him.

Markus watched the snarling werewolf approach him, he had just shadow jumped up to the upper ridge of the ravine and anticipated the werewolf seeing him, and brought a shield up to bear against the powerful, emotionally charged spells being thrown at him. That's how spells often were when dealing with werewolves, and even sometimes mortal wizards. They were more powerful due to the sheer emotion they were cast with, usually anger or rage, but also love could be used to make a spell more powerful. Vampires tended to be more cold and precise with their spellcasting, relying less on emotion than most other races. Most other races in fact did not rely on it at all, and neither did werewolves. It was just a side-affect of their condition manifesting through their spellcasting. But it did, in the end, make their spells more powerful and made them hit harder.

This was why Markus's shield was taking a beating, the quick chain of spells hit him one after another, and without his shield in place he would surely have cracked most of the bones in his torso. As he absorbed the hits he could see with his enhanced night vision that Shadowknife was playing his role now too, Cygnus had played his part and retreated off into the inky black night all around them.

Markus nodded very slightly to signal Shadowknife, he was preoccupied with dodging the spells he could, and also keeping the shield in front of him from cracking under the pressure and strain of the powerful magic the werewolf was throwing around. Spells zoomed across the short distance between the two combatants, and Shadowknife was about forty yards away, on the top of a small hill.

Exhaling through his nose and squeezing the trigger with his clawed hand Shadowknife sent an overpowered stunner straight at the werewolf.

Due to the spell being overpowered it drained the enchanted rifle for a few seconds, just enough time for the spell to cover about half of the distance between the goblins hilltop position and where the werewolf was, still shooting a series of spells at Markus.

Werewolves also possess heightened senses, due to having a magical wolf like being in their very soul. This allowed the werewolf attacker to sense the large amount of magic in the spell coming towards him, and summon his most powerful shield spell about half a second before the spell hit.

And he was lucky he did, for the moment, the overpowered stunner crashed against his shield, and both were obliterated, completely destroyed in a huge flash of magical light, orange and blue lighting up the sky, visible for probably miles around on such a clear night as it was.

It was a few hours past midnight, and the light and resounding magical shockwave would alert any magic sensitive creatures in probably about a five mile radius. This was not ideal for the duo as the werewolf was still standing, albeit slightly haggardly now that magical exhaustion was just beginning to set in. That was the downfall of the emotionally charged spells, while very powerful, a magical being could simply not cast them for very prolonged amounts of time. And so as the werewolf staggered Markus grabbed him and leapt into a particularly dark area on the ground, a shadow provided by the remnants of the smaller fire that Shadowknife had appeared to be stoking as he kept watch.

Shadow jumping with the unconscious werewolf was even more difficult than shadow jumping with Shadowknife had been. Shadowknife was smaller, was compliant, and informed about the process he was going through. The werewolf was none of these things, and Markus was forced to land only about a mile from where they had engaged eachother. He was due to meet up with Shadowknife at dawn two miles to the east of where he was.

That was another helpful part of shadow traveling. Traveling through the shadows gave him an incredibly basic, subconscious understanding of his surroundings. This, coupled with the map, which he had been updating, repairing any damage, and keeping track of their course, gave him at least a decent topographical understanding of the general area.

As dawn would bring with it the fifth day of their seven day journey Markus and Shadowknife knew that they had precious little time to waste. They still had a small river to cross, and had to find the very specific path through the mountains, Markus was thankful that Shadowknife was indeed a goblin, and goblins were good with mountains, better than vampires at least.


	24. Chapter 23

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Last chapter was my longest ever, who knew? blahblahblah more intro stuff blahblahblah I ask for reviews, you ignore me blahblahblah hoping to hit maybe 60k tonight or tomorrow blahblahblah you don't care blahblahblah Read and Review y'all

And it was at dawn that Markus and the still unconscious werewolf met with Cygnus and Shadowknife. Cygnus had gone with Shadowknife because he was able to sense the general direction that Markus was in, and if he was in danger or not. This would allow him to locate Markus and lead Shadowknife there, should something with the werewolf now in their custody go poorly.

They had avoided attracting any undue or unwanted attention after their little light show the night before, which everyone was thankful for. The last thing they needed were desert trolls or ogres coming out and poking around. And god help them if they ran into the nomadic desert giant tribe. They would be little more than smears of red gooey paste should they encounter the giants on unfavorable terms. Thankfully they had avoided any of that unpleasantry from taking place, and were back on their way. They had been slightly ahead of schedule, and the delay the werewolf provided did knock them back, but not to the point of being off schedule. They would just have to be efficient when they moved, they had just two days left to clear the mountain range. Even though they were technically on the estate owned by the Academy already, or at least they would be by noon, they were only counted as on campus when they cleared the mountain range.

The academy owned the mountain range, and the outside of it for about a mile in front, of course they owned all of the land inside of it too, it sat directly in the middle of a perfectly spherical ring of mountains, were one to look at it from high above, or on a map. The school itself was partially freestanding, partially built into another mountain located dead center in the ring. The school wrapped around this magically created mountain, and tunneled into it, much like Felix's headquarters and base of operations located in Ayers Rock.

Remembering Ayers Rock and how the extensive wards around it felt Markus began to get more and more excited as they approached the mountain range. Sure enough as the sun reached its zenith over their heads they were just crossing the first ward line. The Academy had four precise ward lines, where the wards distinctly changed and became more powerful. It also had thousands and thousands of other wards, charms, enchantments, shields, runic arrays, crystal arrays, traps, precautions, warning signals, alarms, monitoring stations, minefield like magical defenses, and many other protections all around it, so much so that attacking it with anything less than the combined population of most of the Northern Hemisphere would be madness, even then the casualties would lie in the millions, even before counting the impressive fighting force that the Academy could potentially muster, when necessary.

And so as they crossed the ward line Markus actually stumbled, like he had when they crossed the ward line at Ayers Rock. It was phenomenal, the amount of sheer magic in the air and earth, and this was just the first ward line.

It was a semi-common problem for the more magically attuned or sensitive students to be effected like this when they first crossed each ward line, and even as they progressed through to the center of the school campus. The mountain ranges were enormous, and well protected, but many many small pathways through existed, most for student use as they competed to reach the school.

The way to the school for new students, while perilous, was not overly dangerous. It was not meant to be, either. The main danger was meant to be meeting and encountering the other students along the way, which the professors carefully and precisely engineered to make sure happened.

And so it had, Markus, Shadowknife, nor the as of yet unnamed werewolf had noticed that they were carefully and very very subtly being guided together. They had all, unintentionally, missed about half a dozen total potential encounters with other students, as was common when the new students made choices that went against what the staff and professors predicted would happen.

So it was fairly lucky that these three students had been brought together as they were, a goblin, a vampire, and a werewolf. And speaking of the werewolf crossing the first ward line had broke the spell on him, and Markus and Shadowknife both were a bit too preoccupied with the sensation of the wards and crossing them that they did not notice. Luckily however, Cygnus did notice, and was able to strike at the werewolf, only to be knocked to the side again.

Shadowknife and Markus had know that the werewolf would wake up sometime. They had put off awakening him themselves because it might slow their progress if he was unwilling to travel with them, or attacked them.

"Stop right now. Drop the rock or we kill you and leave your corpse here for the buzzards." Markus threatened the werewolf, just as Shadowknife raised his magical gun to level with him.

Grumbling the werewolf dropped the rock he had picked up and looked from vampire to goblin with rage in his eyes. He could be civil, if they were willing to be. They would all have to be students together, after all, and it would not be wise to make any undue enemies so early in the term. Before the term even began actually! Besides, the werewolf had attacked them first.

Even knowing all of this, he could not help but be angry and frustrated, more at his own self for being overwhelmed, outsmarted, and captured. He growled at Markus, "Fine. Academy bound I hope?" His pride would not let him accept that he had been beaten by any except the best, who would obviously be attending the North American Academy of the Arcane.

"Why else would we be in the desert, wolf?" Shadowknife seemed to enjoy referring to species like that, he had referred to Markus as 'vampire' on multiple occasions, and it seemed it translated over to werewolves as well.

"Near the mountains, ain't we? Besides, the hell I know 'bout what vampires and goblins conspire 'bout when they get together, y'all could be the two evilest bastards ever and not even know where you were standing." As he spoke it was evident that whoever this werewolf was he came from somewhere in the south eastern area of the United States. He fit the bill too, tall, strong, and it seemed headstrong as well. Rather bullheaded Markus thought, but he obviously had the capabilities for stealth, as he had demonstrated.

He was a powerful werewolf, and would be a great asset to any pack that he joined, but he had decided to forgo living with or participating with any werewolf packs, instead living a more isolated life. It suited him just fine. He was too proud and independent to really submit to an alpha in the way that way required when joining or being part of a werewolf pack.

It was much easier for werewolves to eschew their creator and live independently. For vampires it was nearly always difficult, more likely than not lethal, and incredibly dangerous. It was more dangerous because vampires had blood ties with their creators, whether they wanted them or not. They could be destroyed and erased completely, if both parties were willing, which was incredibly rare because it required a vampire to give up an advantage over another vampire. Werewolves had no such ties to who they created, and also some werewolves were born as werewolves. Because lycanthropy did not kill the afflicted being, as vampirism did, their body and its systems continued working. Vampirism killed every cell and replaced the life with bloodmagic. Lycanthropy merely infected the magic.

And for some reason or another vampires and werewolves had been at war, much like the goblins and dwarves, for as long as even the oldest vampire could remember, which was likely Felix. And the oldest vampire records regarding the werewolves were filled with detest and revulsion. It seemed that they had been fighting for so long no one remembered why. At least the goblins and dwarves would go to war over the mountains, and who could own them, and things of a similar nature. But no, the vampires and werewolves were at war for a seemingly unknown reason. And despite the 'peace' that existed between the groups thousands were killed on each side annually. Which, of course, only increased tensions further and further.

"Stop with the useless talk now, wolf. What's your name?" Markus had decided that he would let Shadowknife take over questioning the werewolf, and began preparing their lunch time meal, they had left over from the enticing feast cooked to lure the werewolf in, which would be for Shadowknife, and the werewolf should he choose to eat. They would not withhold food from him. They would all have to be students in the same year after all, wouldn't they? That was Markus's reasoning for it. And Markus himself was going to have a bottle of blood, he had recently counted his blood supply left in the trunk and he had two dozen bottles of animal blood, and three dozen bottles of human muggle blood left.

"Warren, Warren Beck. Nice to meet ya, goblin." The werewolf, evidently named Warren, had picked up on Shadowknife's habit of calling him a wolf, and had responded in kind.

Markus was listening to Warren speak, and had been poking at him with slight tendrils of magic to analyze Warren. It seemed that the anger Markus could feel boiling just under the surface had dissipated, amazingly fast, especially for such an emotion driven creature like a werewolf. He had been ready to possibly kill Markus with a rock and his bare hands just a few minutes ago.

"Why were you tracking us?" Shadowknife was, as usual, precise and to the point with his conversations. It was a goblin trait, and Markus could easily appreciate the efficiency with which their society ran because of it. They wasted no time, and few words were unnecessary.

"I saw you jump the river, I knew you two were probably heading for the Academy, and my plan was to cautiously observe y'all as you made your way to the mountains."

"But why?

"I don't know why, seemed like some company would be nice, I guess. I was planning on introducing myself whenever we crossed the first ward-line, which is the one part of my plan that worked, I suppose." Finishing with a laugh about how his plan had worked out Warren had confused Markus and Shadowknife, apparently he did not have a real reason for following them, and neither Markus nor Cygnus had been able to sense any lie or misdirection in his voice.

Must be an American thing, Markus decided, as they unbound Warren and sat down for lunch. Warren had been fascinated when Cygnus had slithered up to Markus, and gone up his shoulder. From basic conversation with the werewolf they confirmed that he was indeed from the South Eastern United States, down somewhere in Georgie. That meant basically nothing at all to Markus, and Shadowknife seemed to vaguely know the area, and some about the culture of the area.

The now genial werewolf seemed very glad to have some traveling companions, and potentially friends. For how independent he was from the werewolf packs and pack lifestyle the wolf inside him still craved for occasional companionship, and friendship that could be relied on.

This tended to make Warren slightly over trusting with those he met, but he was a mature young man, 18 years old, like Markus and Shadowknife, and was above average in pure magical power, while not all that much, it would increase with training and refining his magical prowess.

After lunch the now even more unlikely trio of a goblin, a vampire, and a werewolf set off, to find one of the dozens of mountain paths that would take them safely through the mountain over the next two days. They had all agreed to do a 'forced march' through the night in order to leave some slack in their schedule, they had been set back ever so slightly with Warren awakening, but his willingness and eagerness to get along meant they could travel at a comfortable clip, and still make it to the campus on time.

Setting off into their very futures the three different and unique individuals took the first steps in a journey that would eventually end with producing the closest, possibly deadliest trio of allies and friends that the world had ever seen. The road would be tough, and filled with hardship, pain, and death, but they would emerge on the other side, either in victory, or death in the pursuit of victory.


	25. Chapter 24

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

blahblahblah 40k words in my blahblahblah story blahblahblah if you ask nicely I might go ahead and stay up all night writing blahblahblah Read and Review y'all

Markus and Warren became fast friends, well as fast and as friendly as a vampire and a werewolf could get while traversing through the beginning of what promised to be a dangerous and perilous mountain path, with a goblin and four foot long magical snake as their only other companions.

As it turned out Warren had been part of a subpack that was part of the largest pack in the Southeastern United States. The werewolf hierarchy broke down into large packs that would dominate large regions, many keeping smaller subpacks that operated under the larger packs name and flag, so to speak. They were provided the protection that came along with the larger pack, and the resources when necessary, and they only had to pledge to fight and defend the other subpacks in the pack, and give resources when others needed them. It was not a too terrible system, and besides the incredibly bloody turf wars that came about every few years it was beneficial to most involved.

Markus and even Shadowknife had never known these things about the more intricate parts of pack life. Warren, who was usually more independent, a sort of lone wolf to get cliche with it, had been in the subpack of the Southeastern ruling pack because he was an orphan. With no parents and no support network at all Warren was forced to turn to the packs, for protection, a support network, and an opportunity to learn and train more. It turned out to be beneficial to him, he grew more powerful and more intelligent, but as time went on it became more and more obvious that the pack life was not for him.

He disliked sharing what was his, and he also disliked giving the best to the pack alpha first, and then getting his cut, even when he had rightfully earned, or hunted whatever was being given up. It infuriated Warren, and after a fight with his alpha he was declared unwelcome with the pack, and because it was a subpack, and part of the whole he was soon declared unwelcome from the whole pack. After that happened any pack that took him in would be seen less favorably by the largest pack, and no one would risk that. But that was totally fine with Warren, he had no need for a pack anyway.

He was his own wolfpack, his own alpha. No one could change that, in fact it was really the only way that Warren could see himself being part of a pack; if he was the sole leader and chief. It didn't sound too bad, Alpha Wolf Warren Beck. Hmmm. Maybe if all went well he would consider it. He had plenty of time to do so as well.

It had been noon on the fifth day when Warren woke up and they had all met each other, now it was sunset and they were just beginning to get to the first real climbing they had to do on the path. It was only about fifteen feet, but it was perfectly vertical. The rock would provide plenty of hand holds and footholds, but the darkness would complicate things somewhat.

All three species had heightened senses, luckily night vision was among them to varying degrees, with them all being somewhat equal, the vampires being creatures of the night had adapted to have good vision in the night, the werewolves had the vision of a predator stalking their prey through the night, and goblins had the vision of a race of beings living in tunnels for millennia, dark, deep tunnels far into the Earth.

They had all agreed to march on through the night, following the trail that they had found without too much difficulty. In all honesty it had been Cygnus who discovered the trail as he was hunting, and had come across a small family of magical birds, and promptly devoured the parents, and the eggs. Telling Markus about how particularly delicious they were, and where he had found the nest Markus realized he was describing a possible entrance or path through the mountain, and had immediately gone to check out exactly where Cygnus led him.

Sure enough it seemed that Cygnus had found one of the few dozen paths leading safely through the mountain. Markus had rewarded him with the promise of a luxurious feast of his new favorite, the small magical meerkat like creatures that were roaming throughout the desert surrounding the ring of mountains. Cygnus had seemed quite pleased with his promise, he coiled up and fell asleep on Markus's shoulder just as the moon began to rise.

The trio proceeding down the trail as they found it had just begun to get dark. Traveling at as slightly reduced pace they still made good time, Markus was keeping up with their progress through some basic cartography spells, they were basic, but complex to cast and understand. He was making sure that the narrow, winding trail was indeed taking them through the good sized mountain range, and not just up and down the length of them. So far it seemed they were on course, and if they kept on at their current pace they should exit the mountain range at around noon on their sixth day, spending only about twenty four hours total in the mountain range, traveling the entire time.

It would be a long night, but that was just fine with Markus, despite not truly resting the night before, nor the night before that, despite this he was ready for the night long walk. Warren had slept decently the last two nights, and was ready for the night long walk. Shadowknife was fine, he was ready for the night long walk as well. Warren had also been interested in the enchanted musket weapon that Shadowknife possessed. Markus had even admitted that he was still very interested in how the enchantments and runes on the weapon functioned exactly, and Shadowknife had decided that he would think about letting Markus examine it further. They had become slightly close friends over the past few days of travel, and had learned that while they both had some of the same interests they also had different interests and specialties.

The two found themselves also becoming friends, at least on the way to friendship. This was a very good thing, Markus needed allies, sure, but he also needed people he could trust to keep his secrets, and also trust them to be powerful enough to keep those secrets safe. Not everyone, actually not many people could be trusted that much, and it still remained to be seen just how much they could be trusted.

But Markus had a good feeling about both of them, and Felix had told him that his closest friend and ally had two vampires from his family that would be attending the Academy that term as well. Markus knew that he would have to see what those two were like, and if they could be trusted at all.

With his wand lit with a _lumos_ spell Markus led the small group, with Shadowknife behind him, the goblins wand was holstered in the end of his gun, it still allowed him to channel certain spells through it, such as _lumos. _This was useful for providing light to see by, and still keeping Shadowknife's main weapon available for use, and actually pointing at whatever his wand was. Warren was in the rear, keeping a watch behind them and making sure they all stayed together.

As the group made their way up the fifteen foot vertical rock face they had little problems, it was difficult to climb and hold their wands and gun, but they managed. Over all it was a slow process, but they were being more cautious than strictly necessary. Which was probably a smart decision, considering it was nighttime, they were running into completely unknown territory, and the area had possible magical creatures or enemies that would know the terrain much better than they did.

So slowly, but surely the trio made their way through the mountain path. They made good progress, and sure enough by dawn the three travelers were thoroughly exhausted, but were nearly finished with the pathway through the mountain range. They had weaved and doubled back countless times, climbed sheer rock faces, jimmied their way across some pretty far pitfalls, but they were nearly done. Markus had kept up with the cartography spells, linking them to a good sized piece of parchment with preservation charms and runes on it, and had created a more detailed map of that specific trail, and where it was on the mountain range. With some complicated and complex bits of magic Markus had a project in mind that would potentially prove useful in the future.

They had decided that once the trail leveled off for a ways they would light a small magical fire, and stop to eat, and for Markus he would down a bottle of the blood he still had in his trunk. He would begin to run low soon, but he had enough to last until he reached the school, where animal blood would be available. He would also be able to go out hunting, traveling farther distances by shadow travel. It would give him many possibilities and opportunities, although he would have to limit the range because the massive distances he had traveled to reach the cave he started the journey off had thoroughly and utterly exhausted him, on a deeper level than simple magical exhaustion. He had not felt the full extent of how much magic had been drained from him because over the next week he had gone through simply so much blood. He was, for the first day immediately afterwards, constantly drinking blood from the bottles in his trunk, and it had made his supply very low.

The constant intake had been able to delay the full-body full-magical core exhaustion that was sure to set in, and it had not been helped by his lack of sleep over the past few nights, he knew that he would feel exactly how deep the exhaustion ran. It would no doubt take many days, possibly a full week to fully recover. Markus was not looking forward to this, but he could not afford to slip up now, he needed to be fully alert.

The past six days he had hidden his tiredness and exhaustion, delaying any rest, any chance that he might slip into a slight magical coma and be unable to be woken. He had stayed up meditating, also taking potions to keep him awake and mentally sharp. The blood helped keep him awake as well, he was pushing his chances and pushing the very limits of his brain and mind to stay awake and alert for so long.

The whole ordeal with being tracked and dealing with the werewolf tracking them had stressed him out even further. And now he was back to constantly sipping on a bottle of blood just to stay awake. He only had to last a little while longer before he could pass out. The longer he waited however the longer he would be out, and when he went out he would well and truly be out of it. No spell nor any stimulus would wake him up, his magic would need time to recover and it would take that time. His magical core had essentially been drained nearly completely dry, and he had been doing his best to keep his body from completely shutting down, especially as he slept.

The sleep was instrumental in keeping him going the past six days. Between the sleep, constant and later intermittent blood intake, potions, and the help of two special crystals he had been able to maintain consciousness. The crystals had been prepared before he even left Ayers Rock, and had been probably the best thing for helping in his scramble to remain conscious and magically able to see himself to safety.

However in the end it would be beneficial to him. A magical core was similar to muscles in the sense that when it was completely broken down and used up when it rebuilt itself it would be slightly stronger, more durable, and just overall more powerful. All magical beings had a magical core, even muggles. They just did not have enough magic in their tiny magical cores to cast the simplest of spells. Squibs had larger magical cores than muggles, but not near as large as witches and wizards. This magical core gave the being access to magic, such as bloodmagic, necromancy, death magic, dark magic, light magic, almost every sort of magic was available through this magical core, called the primary core by scholars and academics in the magical society.

While the primary core was present in all magical beings, and it was all that most magical beings had, most magical beings were regular, mortal witches and wizards, and it was all they needed. But many beings possessed a secondary core. Goblins had a secondary core that allowed them to cast and use goblin magic, the same with werewolves, elves, centaurs, dwarves, and also vampires.

This was where the vampire magic Markus was using came from. His secondary core, which was his core that allowed him to cast and use vampire magic. It had been drained nearly completely dry, he would not have been able to cast or utilize it at all if he had not been constantly drinking the bottled blood, most of which had a percentage of magical being blood mixed into it. This had kept his secondary core from shutting down and bringing his mind with it. It would have come back online eventually of course, so would his mind. It would have just taken time to recharge.

And again similar to muscles and primary cores secondary cores worked the same way. They were eventually strengthened from being worked to the point of exhaustion. But it would come back stronger, and because Markus had drained, torn apart, and ripped to shreds his secondary core. Over and over again his secondary core had been torn down, rebuilt ever so slightly, and torn down again. This meant that certainly his core would replenish itself stronger than it was before, significantly stronger. It had not had the chance to begin rebuilding, it was only sustained by the blood he had been ingesting as often as possible.

The blood that Markus was drinking constantly the blood was instantly being reverted and transformed into it's most basic state of bloodmagic. This bloodmagic flowed directly into his secondary core, refilling and then rebuilding it. However because of the high usage and refusal to rest it was struggling to keep up with even allowing his mind to be conscious. The blood that Markus was continually intaking was only sufficient to satisfy it for now, it was simply running off of everything it got. If the blood stopped Markus would stop, and slip into a magical coma until his primary and secondary core recharged and rebuilt themselves, this time larger and stronger than before.

It was imperative that Markus make it through the next forty eight hours without slipping into a magical coma. After they reached the school itself he did not care, but had had to at least make it to the gates.


	26. Chapter 25

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Longest chapter yet. by a good little bit. Read and Review.

As dawn came and went Markus and his new potential allies and friends were finishing their journey, once they had cleared the mountain range they would be considered 'on campus' for the North American Academy of the Arcane. And thus they would be under the protection of the Academy, and officially would be charges of the Academy until either their graduation, or death.

This meant that they and their continued safety would be the responsibility of the school. At least that's what it officially meant. At the NAAA it was more the school took responsibility for the student's continued existence, and not much else. This was not worrying to any of the three current companions, they were all confident in their abilities.

Shadowknife was proficient enough at healing charms and could be relied on to heal both Markus and Warren. Healers were rarely attacked for no reason, in fact they were rarely attacked at all at the Academy. But Shadowknife was not a healer, he was no where close to being a healer, he was a goblin quite interested in espionage and other cloak and dagger type works. He would possibly go into work with one of the Goblin army groups.

The NAAA offered such courses, and the three companions were quickly becoming friends.

Markus felt much more truly comfortable with his new friends than he really ever had as Harry Potter with Ron and Hermione. And Markus felt that the Weasley family that had once loved him now hated him, in fact he was sure at least some of them did.

After all that disastrous night in the department of mysteries was what started all of this. What had started with a small group of students being led by Harry Potter into the depths of the ministry had gone wrong. Terribly terribly wrong.

When Harry led them into the Prophecy Hall they came under attack by a group of Death Eaters, all with one goal in mind. Get the prophecy, possibly Potter, and kill his friends, if need be. Leading his group of friends through the Department of Mysteries they eventually arrived in the Time Chamber, where the Department of Mysteries most well known time magic experiments were stored.

That was where it all went completely wrong that night.

A few masked Death Eaters had chased them in there, and one had managed to grab hold to Ginny Weasley's elbow. As she was thrashing and struggling to get out of his solid grip an errant spell, reflected off of a reflecting shield spell cast by one of the Death Eaters, slammed into the great shelf holding all of the Time Turners. The shelf toppled, bringing with it all of the Time Turners, smashing and breaking on the black marble floor, falling all around the Death Eater, and Ginny. There was nothing either Harry and his other friends, or even the Death Eaters could do to prevent what happened next. They could all just stand there, horrified, but transfixed, and watch what happened to the two unfortunate souls.

Harry had used a Time Turner before, but as they broke they all saw something horrible. The Death Eater, later identified as one Gregory Goyle, Sr. and Ginny Weasley both aged before their eyes. It was difficult to see, for Harry and his friends, to watch such a young and passionate person age through their entire life cycle in less than fifteen seconds. To watch her mature into her full beauty, and then have it stolen from her in the course of not even a quarter of a minute. Much less love was felt for Goyle Sr., after all he did not last under the vicious time magics ripping the two apart.

That was about the point where Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix arrived. And the night and battle only got worse and worse from then on. From watching Ginny age into nothingness, then watching Sirius Black, Harry's long imprisoned godfather, fall through the veil, and being possessed by Voldemort and damn near brought to submission it was an incredibly humbling, terrifying experience for Harry.

That was truly the first time he had gotten to know death, and what death was like. He had looked Dumbledore in the eyes as he informed him of exactly how Ginny died, and what he saw in the old headmaster's eyes frightened him deeply. Harry saw through the twinkling old man's facade, if just for a second, and the only thing Harry could see in Dumbledore's eyes was a cold, calculating glint that said Harry had essentially used up any usefulness he had once possessed, or had been able to offer Dumbledore and the war effort. Harry saw Dumbledore come to the split second decision that something would have to be done about his 'savior' and it frightened him.

He knew not what Dumbledore was planning, but it became evident as a trial was held that accused and found Harry Potter guilty of the murder of two purebloods. Honestly the only thing that allowed Harry the chance to escape was how biased the Ministry was towards purebloods and pureblooded families. The only reason he had been given ten minutes to write a will and say his goodbyes was because he was the last of the Potter line, at least the direct line. And this suited Harry just fine, he would take every advantage he was given.

At the prompting note from Dumbledore Harry began to unwittingly fall into the headmaster's trap. Only the sudden realization of what Dumbledore could possibly be planning, especially after the cold look Harry had caught in the headmaster's old, usually deceptively twinkling eyes. Harry was wary about going to Hogwarts, despite being already at the gates.

And that was the precise moment that Harry made the biggest decision of his life. As he stepped into the Forbidden Forest that night, with his Holly and Phoenix feather wand lit bright with a _lumos_ charm he took the first steps of his new life as Markus Black, and his last as Harry Potter.

Despite not knowing what his new name, or even the fact that he wanted and needed a new name, he was already becoming who Markus was. His time in the Forest served to fundamentally change the naive little boy that had walked in, and by the time Harry left the Forest for the Chamber he was a man. He had fought, struggled, and even killed in the Forbidden Forest, and it shaped who he was.

While the time in the Forbidden Forest taught him survival instincts and skills, and how he very much so liked being independent, reliant upon no one else but himself, he learned many other things during his unauthorized stay on Hogwarts grounds.

In the Chamber of Secrets he learned about the 'darker' side of magic, it was his first true introduction to it, or at least to the applicational side to it. He had never learned how to cast or use it before his time in the Chamber, but he began then. Learning all sorts of 'dark' curses and spell Markus also learned bloodmagic. And he certainly took to it with passion and vigor. Anyone with an eye for bloodmagic would be able to see that.

Looking back on those times Markus was able to identify and realize that it was his hidden and at that time still blocked Vampirism that made him so adept at bloodmagic. Vampires were connected to their blood and their own bloodmagic on a level that most mortal witches and wizards simply did not possess, mainly because of their secondary core consisting of their vampire magics.

But Markus was able to identify how each of the places he stayed changed him, and shaped Harry Potter into Markus Black, and eventually Markus Drakul.

Even his time at the Dursley's taught him things, and especially being locked away and unable to properly grieve, or even talk to his friends had been devastating. His time in the Forest had taught him independence, and he had vowed to never be so controlled again, by anyone. It was this vow that would later bring so much conflict, struggle, and strife to Markus's life. The time he spent in the Chamber taught him more about magic, especially basic parseltongue and parselmagic. It also helped Markus to realize that the other sorts of magic were not 'evil' as Dumbledore and others had suggested and implied, but that magic was very much so intent based.

His time in the Room of Requirement had helped him refine this magic, and also his then budding bloodmagic talents, which he had begun training inside the Chamber of Secrets.

Speaking of the Chamber of Secrets Markus needed to return and harvest components of the basilisk, he would need another new wand in about a year or so, after all. Perhaps he could sneak in during one of the breaks from the NAAA.

He had also learned some from his time with the Native Americans, he had certainly learned the basics of archery, and the very basics of enchanting weapons and items. But he had also learned a sense of community and teamwork. In the tribe every single person did their part to make sure their society functioned. And Markus knew that society would not function so smoothly if extraneous bits were hanging off of and leeching energy and productivity. But he could deal with that later. Right now every second was beginning to become a struggle to stay conscious.

The trio had completed their trek through the mountain pass about an hour ago, and were now going through lush, verdant hills.

In front of them for as far as they could see, which was a considerable distance, all they could see were soft rolling hills, lakes, forests, and in the far distance what appeared to be a speck raising above the rest of the terrain.

And as the moved in closer and closer sure enough this small speck rose higher and higher, and seemed to get wider and wider. It was obvious that it was the mountain at the dead center of the ring. The school was built in a perfect circle on and around it, and partially inside the huge mountain.

They had now crossed three of the ward lines, and were approaching the last before the school itself. The pure amount of magic near each one of the ward lines had made Markus and Warren slightly dizzy as they crossed them. Shadowknife did not seem to be so affected by the ward lines, and crossing them.

The three had continuously been talking and chatting during their journey, sharing parts and bits of their life stories and adventures they had had. But it was nothing overly personal, nothing too revealing about themselves. While they got along now, and probably would later as well, it would be best to wait and see before jumping into a full trust friendship.

As the sun fell on the sixth day of their journey they had agreed over dinner that they would all be allies, they would share each others secrets, and protect one another to the end. Markus was strangely comfortable with his new friends, and had been obsessively checking himself and them over periodically for any sort or form of compulsion or persuasion charm or enchantment.

Markus had always been a rather charismatic person, easy to befriend, and forgiving person, especially when he had been Harry Potter. Now he had changed, somewhat, but the basic person that Harry was was still there, somewhere. Markus found it easy to make friends in both Warren and Shadowknife, despite the long feud between werewolf and vampire.

As they sat around the fire they had agreed to swear an oath to each other. This was a _very_ serious step in the relationship the three of them had already formed. To swear an Oath of Alliance was not an activity to be taken lightly, and it would bind them together forever.

An Oath of Alliance could just be said, but in order for the bond to be strong each party involved would sacrifice some of their own blood, and a secret. The deal was that none involved would be able to share the secret, and each pledged to come to the others aid, should they need or request it.

And so, one by one the three companions spilled their blood into the brass bowl Markus had in his trunk, and shared their secret.

Warren went first, "Y'all know I'm an orphan, but I didn't tell y'all that the reason why I'm an orphan is cause I killed my parents. I slaughtered 'em in my first transformation into the beast. I couldn't help it. I didn' mean to." Warren started the process off with a very private, very emotional secret. Again following the werewolf trend of emotion filled magic.

Spilling his blood into the bowl Warren looked deep into the fire, he could feel the burning hate in his heart, hate at himself. Hate because he was not strong enough to control his wolf, hate because his wolf and he himself killed his parents. Lots of self loathing was present in his heart, and it was slowly eating away at him.

Shadowknife was second. "I fully intend to join the Goblin espionage departments, and live my life as a spy." Spilling his own blood, mixing with the werewolf's blood in the basin Shadowknife had revealed a work related secret, fairly goblin like of him.

This only left Markus to share his blood and his secret with it. Willingly giving up blood was a dangerous thing, in the wrong hands many rituals could use it to harm him. But he was confident in his new allies, and that no blood would fall into the wrong hands.

That only left one concern for Markus, which secret did he share? He had so many. His real identity? His vampire creator? His parseltongue ability? His true intentions for his life? The last one would be the most dramatic, and the most truthful response. The others had shared major or semi major secrets about themselves, either very personal, or information that could get them killed or seriously injured if the wrong ears heard.

And so Markus had decided exactly which secret he would tell them. He would tell his deepest, the one he had had to lock away for fear of anyone even suspecting him of thinking of it. He would tell them his true intentions for the world. Of course the rest of his secrets would probably come out sooner or later. And it was not like Shadowknife and Warren would be useless in his plans.

No. They could and probably would prove very beneficial to the young vampire they had befriended.

But indeed having these new friends changed his plans fundamentally. At first he had been planning to rise up, and end the Age of Man, and with the end of the Age of Man the Age of Blood would begin, with vampires at the helm. Maybe not him having total control, but vampires nonetheless.

Now that plan had changed, he had friends and allies in other species, so the Age of Blood would not do.

Rising from his seated position on the rock Markus slashed the knife across his palm, and held his open wound over the basin containing the goblin and werewolf blood.

The night sky was pitch black around them, no moon, cloud, nor even any stars to be seen. It was unnaturally dark, and that suited Markus just fine. It was a dark night for discussion of dark secrets, dark deeds, and even darker plans.

"I _will_ end the Age of Man. I will cease it, and will rise up a new Age, a new era of history. We, together, will raise up the Age of Magic for all to see, for the world to bask in, mortal or immortal, magic or mundane, they will all see our power." Revealing his darkest secret, Markus carefully watched the reactions of his new allies. Both seemed a little unsurprised that Markus had very _very_ high ambitions, and thankfully neither seemed opposed to it.

Locking eyes with Markus Warren gave a strong nod, and pounded his right fist over his heart, in a salute of loyalty and trust.

Shadowknife rose, and gave a traditional goblin salute to Markus.

As Markus's potent and powerful vampire blood mixed with the also powerful werewolf and goblin blood the ritual was sealed.

With so much trust, emotion, passion, and power in the three individuals that had been displayed during the ritual Oath it was a very strong bond.

Each one barely felt the bridge forming, but it was there. A link between all of them, in their very souls. Normally the Oath of Alliance would lightly link the minds of the participants together. However the ritual was so successful and powerful that it linked their souls together, just ever so slightly.

Once the bond fully settled in a few weeks they would have a basic idea of the wellbeing, physical state, and location of the others. Even strong emotions would bleed through, and possibly the same emotions would manifest across the link from whoever originally felt them to the other two.

A bright flash lit up the unnatural darkness, and a loud noise came with it. Neither of the goblin nor werewolf had noticed the unnaturally dark and silent night, but Markus had.

The magic of the bond forming was enough to overwhelm him and his past-exhausted cores.

Markus slumped down, hitting the rock with his back and sliding down to the ground, mumbling the entire way about 'not quite far enough' and 'stay awake.' Shadowknife recognized the basic symptoms of extreme magical exhaustion, and he had noticed and kept mental note of them ever since they had started traveling together.

Casting a sleeping charm on Markus that would send him into a natural sleep for the next eight hours it was a gamble on whether Markus would wake up then, ever so slightly refreshed and replenished, magically speaking, or if he would be out for days on end, until he was completely refreshed, with his new reserves that he would have completely filled up as well.

Shadowknife and Warren had no way of knowing which one would happen, perhaps a mixture of both. But they settled Markus near the fire, poured the rest of the bottle of blood he had been drinking down his throat and let Cygnus guard him.

They both had their suspicions about Cygnus, and the large viper's relationship with Markus, they mainly suspected Markus was a parseltongue. Shadowknife had been confident that Markus was going to reveal that for the Oath ceremony. But the wily goblin had been wrong, quite wrong. It was not totally unsurprising that Markus had such high visions and ideas for the world. He was a vampire after all, and a powerful one at that. His power would only grow with age.

Sitting down to take the first watch duty for the night Shadowknife and Warren chatted about what they each thought of Markus, and his revelation to them.


	27. Chapter 26

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

How did y'all like the longer chapter? They seem to keep getting longer and longer. Anyways, they finally reach the school today. Revealed Markus's big intentions last chapter. Let's hope he keeps it quiet, don't want the wrong person to hear, huh? Read and Review y'all. Seriously. I haven't gotten a review in days. I need the feedback, especially with these last few chapters. The story is really shaping up to kind of hint at and say what it will be in the future. I need to have feedback

It turned out that Shadowknife was correct with his guess, and a guess it had been. There was absolutely no way of telling when Markus would wake up. The sleeping charm had worn off four hours ago, it was now about an hour from noon on the final day of their journey.

After the three of them had done their Oath of Alliance ceremony and Markus had passed out Warren and Shadowknife had stayed awake late into the night thinking, planning, and discussing various subjects.

They realized that Markus was more ambitious and somewhat more predictable than they had initially thought. They were not over surprised, but still somewhat surprised about his revelation.

They had also agreed to not speak of it, unless under heavy secrecy, privacy, and silencing wards and charms. They had been lucky last night, Markus always prepared for sleep that way, with all sorts of heavy enchantments and charms. Those heavy enchantments and charms of course had done nothing to help his now overwhelming magical exhaustion.

The mountain they had seen in the distance the day before now towered above everything else in the land. It was by far the largest mountain any of them had ever seen, even Markus who was not yet awake to see it.

The single mountain stood alone, except for the school wrapped all around it's base, in a perfect circle.

Really that was the final layer of defense for the school, it was a massive wall, a thirty foot tall stone wall circled the entire mountain. It was the defensive perimeter of the school in times of dire crisis and catastrophe. Wizards and witches, and indeed all magical beings could man the walls and rain magical death down upon any enemy foolish enough to attack, and either plentiful or powerful enough to make it through the wards, and the hundreds of other individual protections and defenses that surrounded the school.

The wall all seemed to be one huge piece of stone, a massive stone ring that was miles in length simply perfectly placed around near the base of the mountain.

Finding one of the gates through the wall that was charmed to let the students and other authorized personnel inside the goblin, werewolf, and still unconscious vampire crossed the fourth and final definitive ward line. As soon as they could feel the power of the wards Warren dropped to his knees, the pure intense magic in the area was giving him quite the headache. This time Shadowknife did feel the wards, and stumbled heavily, steadying himself against the wall.

They had been levitating Markus, with Cygnus resting on his chest, protecting his weary master. They had not even tried to move the magical viper, they knew it was powerful and upset that Markus was out for the count, for the moment. But that was not to be, not for much longer anyway.

Crossing the ward line had acted to Markus like it had for Warren. The massive magic in the wards, which were similar to the wards Felix had over Ayers Rock, could move magic to where it was needed most. And the wards that were designed to maintain and monitor magical safety and wellbeing of anyone on the wall or battling flared to life.

Sensing that a new student was magically drained the wards knew that no battle was going on, and that the over all defense system could definitely spare some magic. Redirecting and siphoning magic away from some wards the magical consciousness of the wards began refilling Markus's very depleted primary core.

They could do nothing about his depleted secondary core, and even then just put enough magic back into his primary core to bring him back to consciousness, in fact just in time for the trio's, now fully conscious, first look at the school itself.

Inside the wall was a mile wide ring of buildings. It was not completely covered, here and there was an open pavilion or market place type area, an unaltered hill or rocky outcropping, a small copse of trees, or the like.

It felt rather cramped to Markus, and Warren as well. Shadowknife felt perfectly at home, the goblin strongholds were similarly built, with most land and space being utilized as efficiently as possible, with thin walkways between the buildings and what not.

They could see dozens of different building sprawling out in front of them, it seemed like the school was in fact more like a small city crammed into a small area.

And in some ways it was. Markus did not truly appreciate the size and scope of the school until he stood there now. He did not know exactly how many students were in attendance each year, but if all of this was in fact just the school, and not a magical settlement of some sort, it would have to range in the thousands. Especially if the buildings that covered the area from wall to mountain were wrapped all the way around the ring.

The trio were amazed. People, students most likely, and others dressed more professionally, probably the professors, were busy bustling around every which way. It was surprising, the amount of sheer activity and how packed the area was.

None had been expecting this, it was as if an entire college or university campus and population had been crammed into a mile wide ring, with quite an odd mountain rising from it.

The mountain itself was odd, they could see many towers rising from it, less and less the higher one's eyes traveled upwards, and the mountain itself seemed unnatural. It seemed rather unnaturally skinny for a mountain, sure it was very tall, but it was definitely not as wide as it had seemed as they approached.

This led the three to conclude that powerful magics were at work, land concealing and compressing magics. Very complicated stuff.

The three had ducked off into an alleyway of sorts that they could use to sort of regroup, gather their wits, and come up with a plan.

As they debated what course of action to take a plain looking wizard in pale blue robes approached them, wand in one hand, and what appeared to be a small, thin, slab of rock in the other.

"New students, I presume?" The unknown wizard questioned the three confused individuals.

Markus nodded for the group and introduced them, "I'm Markus Black, the werewolf is Warren Beck, and the goblin is Shadowknife."

"Welcome to the North American Academy of the Arcane, well I say welcome, this is not the school. It is the campus however. Please do as I say, I will bring you to the true school campus." The wizard then directed them to each push a small pulse of their magic onto the slab of rock, for the Academy to have on record.

"Follow me, please."

The pale blue robed wizard led the increasingly confused trio down a series of pathways, and into a small tunnel. If they were on campus, but not the 'true' campus then where were they? And where was the 'true' campus then?

At the end of the short, well lit tunnel they came to an ornate metal door.

"This is one of four entrances to the true campus. A small bit of your blood is required to open the way, however as you are not yet keyed in I will provide the blood. I am just one of the employees of the school, and am here to help any students, and new arrivals."

The wizard then cut a small gash on his thumb, and pressed it into a brass bowl that was embedded into the rock next to the ornately carved and engraved door. "The bowl instantly vaporizes any blood not used in unlocking the door. So no worries about it falling in the wrong hands."

Seeing the dubious expression on Markus's face the wizard provided some more information, "All professors, and staff use these doors as well. Do you think they would not trust the doors if they were not completely as I said they were?"

Satisfied for the moment Markus considered it, he supposed he would be fine with using the doors, if the staff and professors really did as well.

As the door opened they could see nothing beyond it, except a swirling mass of magic. Sensing and scanning this magic Markus could tell that it was incredibly powerful transportation magic. It was a portal. A portal to the true campus.

This was suspicious, the unknown wizard approaching them, taking records of their magical signatures, and now asking them to go through a portal that they had no idea where it would spit them out. It was powerful enough to send them a very far distance, but the three figured they could handle whatever was on the other side.

"Well, who goes in first?" The wizard it seemed would either follow them in, or not be going with them any longer.

Markus went through first, fingering his wand at his side, with Cygnus on his neck hissing and spitting a little, they were agitated slightly and did not know what to expect on the other side of the portal.

Stepping through Markus did not feel the tug on his navel of a portkey, or the compression and squeezing of apparition. He felt no different really. It was basically instantaneous, he had not even stopped walking when he came out the other side.

And when he did come out the other side, what he saw took his breath away.

It was a field. Ringed by hills on the outside, just like the one he stood on now he looked over the field. A plain and simple field, huge, absolutely massive, but still a field. What did take his breath away was what was on the field.

From his vantage point he could see hundreds of different buildings, some tall, some short, some wide, some skinny, all different kinds and sorts of buildings. And he could see dozens, hundreds, thousands even specks moving between the buildings doing various things.

Remembering his friends that would be coming in behind him Markus moved to the side and looked behind himself. The portal he had come through was built into a small stone tower. He could see the vague outlines of other stone towers on top of the hills ringing the shallow valley they formed.

As Warren and Shadowknife both came through and reacted quite similarly to Markus they all took in a second to try and grasp the scale of the school.

None of them had seen or heard of any written record of attendance, and they knew that for such school to support itself it would have to be run similarly to a business.

Working their way down a small path they were once again greeted by a wizard, once more with his wand in one hand and rock slate in the other. This time the wizard was dressed in black robes that ended in a vest, with no sleeves. He was shorter than the first wizard in the pale blue robes, and was more muscular.

"Markus, Warren, and Shadowknife. Vampire, werewolf, and goblin, correct? Please, magical signature on the slate, exactly as you did earlier."

Doing as they were told the man introduced himself as just another employee of the school, he was in fact an alumni, he had graduated three years ago.

He was beginning to explain to them more about the school, about why they had to go through the portal, and where they were exactly.

"Well where you were earlier, while it was part of the NAAA campus it was not where the school is. The school is here, at the NAAA True Campus, as we call it." This wizard seemed to be slightly easier to deal with than the one before him.

"The place you were earlier is part of the Magical Reservation. The Magical Reservation is an area of land open for any and all magical creatures, users, and beings. Many of the magical races such as humans, goblins, vampires and others tend to gather around the base of the mountain, and long ago a settlement was created. It serves as a safe haven for all kinds of magic users."

"It is not part of any country, none of the reservation is, and is mostly governed and managed by Academy officials and employees. This is the true campus, it is not technically part of the regular, mortal realm. Long ago the creators of the Academy, it went by a different name back then created this unique realm using magic. It is simply put, not part of the world. The only access are the portals, which are incredibly secure."

This was fascinating news to all three of them. It was not part of the world at all? They all knew that magic could be used to copy land masses and areas, and then magically separate them from the mortal realm, but this realm was created solely using magic, not with magic and already existing land?

It was a lot to take in and think about, and they were nearing the end of the walk with this wizard, they were being led to the New Students Center, where were told they would be magically evaluated for their own health, stay the night, and in the morning have breakfast, be tested for magical aptitude, and select their classes.

They were just three of several thousand students registered to attend the NAAA beginning that year.

See after the health evaluation and the night stay the students would all be tested for magical ability, potential, and aptitude. The results of these tests would conclude if the student was going to attend the Academy, or another school. Dozens of schools sent recruiters and professors to the Academy at about this time of year, usually other high intensity schools, and they would scoop up students that were rejected by the NAAA.

Markus was confident that he and his two friends would make it into the NAAA, they were all powerful and ambitious enough to. They would be an asset to the school, and would definitely be accepted.

The school did not take just the most powerful applicants, sure most of the most powerful would end up attending, but if for some reason an applicant had managed to botch something during the process up so badly, or offend a professor then that student would likely never attend the Academy.

It was a system that worked fairly well, and had been implemented about four hundred years ago, when a huge amount of new students had shown up, and the NAAA was simply unprepared for the mass of students. Many new facilities had been added, dozens of new buildings, and now the process was only really to find the best of the best.

All people were welcome to attend the Academy for this part, but the Academy offered no guarantees or affirmations that the applicant would attend the NAAA, or even any of the schools that would be represented there.

The wizard in the black robes led them to a large brick building, where other attendant wizards and witches were leading more groups of applicants.

That was one of the reasons why the new students arrival was usually not quite so hindered. It would not be acceptable for really any casualties, especially if they had no guarantee of attending the Academy.

As they entered the building they had to wait in a line of other applicants, slowly making their way through the doorway, where they checked in with their magical signature once more. They did not know why it was so important that they keep 'checking in' with their magical signatures, but they figured that some reason had to exist for it.

Filtering into the large brick building they discovered that while it already looked significantly large on the outside it was even bigger on the inside. As a group the three moved and found the lines that they needed to be processed through to get their medical evaluation finished.

Going through the hour long process of signing in and being evaluated and eventually cleared they were free to roam around the confines of the large building. They had found a sort of cafeteria for Shadowknife and Warren, while Markus continued drinking his bottled blood. He had been going through so much of it he was down to his last dozen bottles of muggle blood cut with magical being blood. He had no animal blood bottles left, and he had been told by the mediwizard who evaluated him that he was quite magically exhausted, and that he should keep up with drinking as much blood, and resting as much as he could over the next few days.

They still had all of their belongings with them, and would have to find a room to stay in for the night. They would deal with that in an hour or so. They had decided while they ate that the three of them would separate for a while, and go to meet other applicants, and see what they were like.

With just over three thousand applicants being the final count, and less than two hundred and fifty that would be accepted into the Academy it was hard to predict who would make it in, especially if it was another applicant guessing.

The three of them had agreed that they would not spend too much time 'networking' so to speak until they had a better idea of who would be sticking around, they were all confident they would get in.

Finding an empty room and conjuring furniture for it the three cast their own various wards and charms that gave them protection and peace of mind as they slept. It was odd after all traveling together for just a week that no one had to be awake to keep watch anymore. As it turned out the keeping watch was not overly necessary, but it could not hurt to take such a simple precaution.

They all slept soundly that night, especially Markus, recovering from their time spent camping and sleeping in the wild. And Markus was recovering from the extreme magical exhaustion, despite what the wards had done to reawaken him they had not really helped him regenerate any real substantial amount of magic. Truly he only had enough magic to keep himself conscious at this point, which sleep would help with.

They had much to do in the morning, and they would have to select their classes as well. The three had discussed which classes they were interested in, and which subjects, but it would be interesting to see how each one tested, and where they all ended up. One thing was certain, Markus, and now his two allies and friends, was once again taking the first steps in the next stage of his journey. And now he had people he could trust and rely on, people who would be very helpful to him. Friends, he had friends.


	28. Chapter 27

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

The next morning came all too soon for Markus. He had been able to recover slightly, and hopefully would be able to perform to the best of his ability during the aptitude and placement tests. Hopefully.

Getting themselves ready for what was possibly the most important day of their lives was not a difficult process. They had all showered and taken care of hygiene as they had been unable to, for the most part, while they had spent the past week traveling. Markus was on his third to last bottle of blood when they left their room for breakfast. They completely packed all of their belongings again, a simple process as they only unpacked the basics, if anything, the night before.

They could take the tests whenever they wanted to, it would only take a few hours to finish the final steps in the process. They would eat, take the tests which they were confident they would pass, and then select their courses, which were due by sunset that day. They would be able to meet up after their tests were finished, and consult each other for advice and debate on which classes each should take, however each person already were fairly sure which classes they would be taking.

As they ate they looked around the room, seeing hundreds of other magical beings and species of various origin. They could see many goblins, some werewolves, about half a dozen vampires in their immediate vicinity. A few centaurs could also be found milling around, mostly everyone in the room were nervously eating their breakfast. A few of the students were confident that they would make it through, mostly the vampires and a few of the werewolves seemed most confident, but that came with the species.

Finishing their meals as Markus finished his goblet of animal blood the three separated, they would be able to locate each other somewhat accurately through the links now present between the three of them. The bridges created by the bond were beginning to stabilize, and take hold. Soon the information provided by the bonds would transmit directly into their own subconscious, and they would innately know where the others were located, at least the general direction, their magical status, and their basic physical wellbeing.

But the bonds were still about a week away from stabilizing to that extent, now they could only really tell the vaguest of locations, but it would be enough to help them find each other later in the day.

The three friends split up into three different lines that were moving their way through the aptitude testing portion of the acceptance process. They were all confident in their abilities and confident that their potential would be seen and recognized by whoever was administering the test.

Shadowknife was the first of the three to be taken and processed through the aptitude tests. His administrator was a grizzled old witch with scars covering her face and arms, with a hard glint in her eyes. She had seen plenty of hard times in her life, and seen her fair share of combat, it seemed. She had been reasonably impressed by the rune work and enchanting work on Shadowknife's gun, and it's capabilities. She had also seen potential in Shadowknife, and while he was slightly above average in power that was nothing that he could rely on. But however he had managed it he had shown great potential during the test, and was one of the few who left with a guaranteed spot at the Academy. This was rare, usually they would be informed by sunset that day, when class schedules were due, but the testers were allowed to guarantee a certain number of potential students who they believed showed true and sizable potential. This was a very good thing for the goblin, and he worked his way back to the room they had stayed the night in, and began to decide on the classes he wished to take.

Markus was the next of the three to be taken through. He began his tests just about ten minutes after Shadowknife began his. His tester had been an elf, one from one of the forest elf tribes. He stood slightly taller than Markus, and somewhat skinnier, less defined muscles. This was typical of elves, a tall slender frame, they were master archers, and usually were quite powerful with elemental magics. This particular elf was incredibly skilled with fire magics, he had an innate control and understanding of what fire was at it's core, and it made him very powerful. He had graduated from the NAAA about a century ago, not that Markus knew any of this. He had passed his tests as well, also walking away with a guarantee of acceptance. His bloodmagic potential alone had been enough to give him a considerable shot of acceptance, and coupled with his ambition, and sheer power, among other factors he had been given the same guarantee Shadowknife had received.

Warren was last in their group, indeed he was one of the last to be processed in the entire day. His tester was a fellow werewolf, not an alumni of the Academy, but one of the higher up pack members from one of the few packs that operated on the Magical Reservation. Warren had also managed to receive the final guarantee that the werewolf was allowed to give, if only barely. Warren obviously was a passionate person, with a powerful, large magical core. He clearly had ambition, and if his passion could be refined it would be quite beneficial for him. But those factors alone had not been quite enough to secure the guarantee, but as his tester was a werewolf, and high up in a respectable pack he had been most impressed with Warren's inner wolf. He could sense the fierce independence that the wolf required, but also the sheer strength and rage the wolf had just below the surface. With some work this strength could be utilized fully, and brought out to it's full potential. This would make Warren a real force to be reckoned with among the werewolves, should he pursue training and learning more control over his inner wolf.

And thus the three allies had all secured guarantees to receive schooling at the Academy, and all made their way back to the room to meet up. The North American Academy of the Arcane offered a very wide selection of courses and subjects to take, and at many different levels.

The Academy was not purely education nor purely research based, but it had found a delicate balance that managed to keep the students education and preparation at the top. Many of the alumni went back to work for the Academy in some way, or went into less than legal, or less than savory lines of work. Because of this the teachers and professors did their best to prepare the students, after all if they were going to teach at all they would teach as best they could.

And the Academy offered so many different courses for so many different topics it was mind numbing. They offered nearly every conceivable subject, and if it was not an official class then usually a professor or master on the subject could be found around campus.

All three of them would take courses in mind magics, probably all advancing through to at least intermediate level courses, after all they had big secrets to keep.

Markus and Warren were both planning on taking bloodmagic courses, steadily advancing through the regular courses throughout their time at the NAAA, many master bloodmages and experts were in the employ of the school, and the school had many different chambers ready for student use at any time.

Markus would also continue into Necromancy. He had been running his own experiments, and he would be going into both kinds of Necromancy. Necromancy was divided up, at its most basic level, between the more powerful, more complicated Necromancy, and the simpler, spell based Necromancy. Markus would go into both, and after a term or two consider his options, he was probably going to go further into the more complicated Necromancy, that utilized death magic, as opposed to the regular magic used in the more simple Necromancy. The more complicated side typically incorporated soul magic and death magic, as well.

Warren would probably not go into Necromancy at all, perhaps he would take the beginner level of the simpler side at some point, but he doubted he would. Shadowknife felt the same way. Shadowknife also doubted he would go very far into bloodmagic, he would take enough courses to give himself a strong base, if just to stay on par with the other students, many of whom would be taking bloodmagic courses, or at least doing basic bloodmagic work and pieces.

Markus was very much so looking forward to being able to work on his bloodmagic some more, the last piece he had done had been months ago, and in his various journals he had planned about half a dozen pieces, varying from increased resistance to sunlight, some to still increase his physical attributes, and one piece that would began a set that would ultimately make shadow traveling slightly easier. Markus was looking forward to being able to work on his bloodmagic year round.

Warren would not be taking bloodmagic quite so far as Markus would be. He was not so naturally inclined as Markus was, and was using bloodmagic primarily to mesh and meld better with his own magic, in hopes that it would give him greater control and precision over his magic and possibly his inner wolf.

Shadowknife would be taking classes about disguise, document forging, counterfeiting, concealment, and deception. He would need to take as many classes as he could, and get as proficient as possible in the business of espionage and assassination. He was also planning on taking courses in warding, at least the basics, and enchantment. He had a natural skill and talent in enchanting, and between Markus and Warren they had been able to convince Shadowknife that to let such a talent go to waste would be unacceptable. Muggle fighting classes would also be included in Shadowknife's schedule, as would a few basic survival classes, most likely. Finally Shadowknife would also be following his proficiency in healing with a wide selection of basic courses, and possibly a few intermediate or advanced courses.

Warren would be also be taking an animagus course, and courses in offensive and defensive magic, muggle fighting, wilderness survival courses, and mind magic courses, which they would all be taking, to ensure their secrets stayed secret. His schedule would not be quite as rigorous as it could be, but it would leave him time for independent training and research that could be aided by many different professors, in many different areas. That would allow him a broader range of possible subjects, that he would be able to research as he desired. This gave him some flexibility, and he would always be able to change it when he selected classes in later terms.

While having a more open schedule was worthwhile for Warren Markus could and would not be taking a similar course load. He would be taking a much more difficult, strenuous, and rigorous course load, at least eventually. This coming term he would be taking introductory bloodmagic, Necromancy (complex), necromancy (simple), combat, offensive and defensive magics, mind magic, and basic warding.

Keeping up with all of these classes would be time consuming, and Markus hoped he would have the chance to add a few more in the coming years and terms, he wanted to research deeper into wand-making, in fact he was already planning on doing that this year on his own time, enchanting, and also wandless magic, among other, more obscure branches and areas of magic. Markus was planning on accumulating all of the useful knowledge and skills that he could in the coming years. He would need them, after all, not just to achieve his own plans, but to achieve continued survival.

He supposed that now with Shadowknife and Warren standing by him, pledged together as allies, and bound together by friendship, that dealing with Voldemort, the Ministry, and even Dumbledore, when the time came, would be easier. Markus had considered completely giving up on magical Britain, and leaving it to rot, but he could not just leave his home country out to dry like that. Besides he would be eliminating threats that posed a risk or danger to him, and that would be beneficial to him. The three Knightly Orders that had pledged themselves to combat would be a different beast altogether. While the Ministry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort were all parts of a splintered and fractured power balance and continual power struggle all taking place in magical Britain, and the area immediately around it.

The three Orders had no such problems, they were all world wide organizations, between magic beings and also muggles. They had vast networks and resources at their disposal, not to mention strict hierarchies that left little friction in the decision making processes, usually. They would be harder to deal with than his other foes, but he had plans that he had been working over, and that would need much refining before Markus could even begin to think about implementing them.

It was all a very dangerous, very complicated game that Markus found himself continuously being dragged closer and closer to the edge of, and he could only hope he would not drown when he fell in.


	29. Chapter 28

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Training is done, mainly. Now they are at the school, and some conflict will arise. Thanks for the reviews, but please be patient, this is still my first story and as it gets longer it gets more complicated. Hopefully will begin to interject some conflict into this. Read and Review/

Each one marked their class roster as they saw fit, Markus had the most complete and full schedule, Shadowknife was behind him, and Warren had the lightest schedule. Despite having the lightest schedule Warren was planning on doing lots of independent research and training. This would allow him a more diversified training schedule, and he would be able to take things at his own pace. Part of why he wanted the schedule this way was his wolf demanding some level of independence or nonconformity.

The three of them had been talking, especially about the long list of enemies that Markus seemed to have. He had revealed more to his friends about himself, a few more secrets. More specifically Markus had inquired to his friends about what they knew of the Knights of the Wand and Blade.

"Wand and Blade? Not much, I know more 'bout the Order of the Silver Star. They hunt werewolves." Warren growled this as much as he said it, it was a low and rumbling growl, and Markus and Shadowknife could hear the outrage thinly concealed in it. "They operate like any military does. They have recruiters everywhere, forts, bases, safe houses, and all the other things they need, but they're real similar a to each other, the Orders that is."

This meant that all around the world the three Orders had smaller groups working to see their plans come to fruition. They would probably have such a chapter operating in most major cities, it seemed like at the Oder of the Silver Star was based in America, but had strong world wide influence and connections.

The three Orders were one of the threats that Markus planned to eventually completely eradicate. And while the nearest chapter of the Silver Star was not a very large one, in was notoriously tough it seemed. Many werewolves would actively fight the Silver Star, wherever they found it. The nearest chapter of the Silver Star was operating out of a mountain fort, located on one of the mountains just barely inside the borders of the Magical Reservation.

Legally the reservation was rather like a muggle wildlife preserve, it was large enough to support itself, and it had no real regulations at all. It was essentially lawless, but it had such a large area and spread out population, mostly various nomadic tribes, and a few outposts run by various groups. The goblins held a small stronghold in another small mountain somewhere in the deep southwestern portion of the Reserve.

The fort, which was more of an outpost and supply depot for the Silver Star, was located in the western portion of the Reserve, and slightly north of where the nomadic tribe Markus had stayed with had roamed. Markus had actually seen the small mountain from afar, when he was with the nomadic Native American tribe.

Warren especially was completely gung-ho for an assault on the supply depot, and Markus was eager to test their abilities as well, both his and his friends abilities and the abilities of the Silver Star. Many werewolves would jump at basically any opportunity to hurt, hinder, or annoy the Silver Star in any way. It was unlikely that the supply depot would be very heavily guarded or protected, it seemed to be more of a simple storage warehouse, an outpost for new recruits to serve at, where they would do simple tasks until the Order needed them more, and could replace them with more new recruits. It was rather remarkable that the outpost had lasted as long as it had, so close to the Academy, with it's large group of werewolves, and with the few good sized packs roaming around the Reservation as well.

The three had agreed that while they were powerful and the assault would probably be simple they had agreed to settle in for a couple of weeks, and to gather their forces.

They would be outnumbered by quite a bit, and wanted to gather some more potential allies or likeminded individuals to themselves. Many werewolves would be willing to join them, if only to strike out against the Silver Star.

Surveillance would have to be done on the outpost, observing the wards and defenses around it. Markus wanted to try and find a student to accompany them in the attack who was more experienced or more adept at thread magic than him and his friends. Threadmagic could be incredibly useful for bringing down wards, especially non thread magic wards. It would make the eventual assault much easier for them if they could storm the wards and shatter them quickly.

But that was the issue, they did not know what wards, even what kind of wards were in place, they were likely not too powerful, the Order of the Silver Star was oddly enough mostly made up of muggles.

This was what made the Orders so dangerous, while they revealed magic to some muggles they did not reveal it to all muggles, and those who did not accept it were obliviated or eliminated. This, and their established position of strength in the world made it difficult for the other magical species to unite against the Orders, especially when they could easily reveal all of magic to the rest of the world. In almost every situation that would not go well, muggles were usually intolerant of what they did not know, or understand. And the fact that the only way any muggle would be able to wield magic was to be turned into a vampire, and last centuries as they developed the most basic of basic bloodmagic, and from there facilitating and fostering the link to their magic that they had. That would give muggles the ability to grow their primary core, and strengthen it's bonds and ties to their bodies. But as most muggle vampires were killed and drained of their blood by the first magical vampire to come by them it was not completely unheard of, one muggle vampire living today was even older than Felix and Alexander. But they outclassed him in power by unfathomable amounts. The vampire only held about the magical power of an average witch or wizard, and his vampire magics were probably about on par with a five hundred year old vampire. But somehow he had lived quite long, quite long indeed.

But that was beside the point, currently they were settling down for their last night in the room together. Soon they would be moved into one of the muggle university style dorm housing buildings. They would be able to pick their own, the rooms would be completely unfurnished, they would be able to provide or create their own as they saw fit. They would also be able to select their own rooms, no doubt they would be next to each other, or at least nearby. They would all be responsible for warding their own rooms, and they could alter the interior as they saw fit.

They would settle into their new schedule, consolidate what power and resources they could, take stock of their advantages and resources and plan further from there. They would hopefully gain a few more people to join them in the assault, it would likely be a crude storming of the outpost, they did not need to have an incredibly elaborate plan, a simple attack would do.

Besides, Markus needed more time to fully recover his magic stores. When he had the chance to fully recover he would come out more powerful in the end. But that would take some time, it would be at least a week before he was completely magically up to his full potential.

Markus, Warren, and Shadowknife had all settled in their room for the night, they had warded it sufficiently. They were all anticipating their day tomorrow, their first day of schooling at the Academy, it would no doubt be dangerous, beneficial, exhilarating, and Markus expected that it would be incredibly interesting, and possibly even fun, as odd as that may sound.

—

Sleeping through the night they all woke up the next morning recovered and refreshed, Markus's primary and secondary cores were still replenishing themselves, they would be where they were before this journey in about a week, and after that they would continue to grow and fill until they were full, what they had been before the journey, plus what had grown from the cores being emptied.

As they woke the next morning and repacked the room and dispelled all of the wards they had set up. Conversing quietly over their breakfast for Warren and Shadowknife, and as many goblets of animal blood as he could get his hands on they planned what they would do the next day, a Sunday, when they did not have classes. They were still in the New Students Center, and the applicants who had not been accepted were leaving, some going home, some going to other top notch schools, some others seemed entirely lost with what to do with themselves now, no doubt they had been relying or depending on the assumption that they were good enough to make it into the Academy, but apparently were not quite so good.

Filtering out throughout the meal by the time they were done most of the people left behind were going to be attending the Academy. About two hundred and thirty five individuals were left in the cafeteria area. A few more had been placed into the medical bay for extended care or observation, but most had been either undamaged or healed, except many of the new students were magically exhausted, though few as bad as Markus was. Tensions among students would run high the next few days, as the power structure took place, werewolves would be deciding packs to join, vampires would be settling into their place on their own hierarchy, the mortals would be vying for power among themselves, the elves, goblins, few centaurs, and the two dwarves in their incoming class, that they could see in the cafeteria, would all be trying to find their own place, and their own niche to fill.

Shadowknife apparently knew one of the goblin students already, they had met a few times before, and had grown up in the same stronghold in magically removed lands somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, they had ran into a small group of dwarves together, and had fought in a skirmish against those dwarves.

Warren knew none of the werewolves in their class, and Markus knew none of the vampires, except he knew of two who he would be approaching later that day, most likely. They were supposedly powerful, and could prove to be useful, should they seem to be sympathetic or at least open minded to Markus, and his ideals.

Markus and Shadowknife would be working together to create a network of informants, and other low lives such as smugglers, criminals, thieves, and probably would consist heavily of alumni and people met through alumni.

In the first few weeks of his espionage related classes he would begin to form a network through the professor and alumni, even other students. Eventually he would have his own network to handle and run. Shadowknife, as many goblins already did, already had connections to the black market in the stronghold he was from. This would probably be quite beneficial if used correctly.

Shadowknife would be sending out letters to his contact with the goblin black market, he would be inquiring about means of communication that would be more discreet, reliable, and faster.

They had no doubts that a thriving black market was located just outside the portals they had taken to get inside the True Campus, as it was called. It would take some time, but they would eventually be able to gather and grow a considerable network that would provide them information, potentially supplies, and items of less than legal or questionable origin.

Markus would need funding if he wanted to run a full scale uprising, as he was planning to. And a large part of this funding would probably be from illegal means, they tended to be the most profitable in the shortest amount of time. Which is actually exactly what he needed, and the sooner he could get some sort of enterprise or business up and running the better it would be, in the long run.

As the trio made their way out of the cafeteria and outside of the New Student Center the three were directed to where they were allowed to stay by another employee of the school, this time a witch with short blue hair. She was quite energetic, and seemed excited about the new students and new school year approaching.

Approaching the tall red brick building there was little that marked it out from the ordinary. It was simply labeled Dormitory Block A, and it was where the New Students would stay, unless they had special accommodations, such as the centaurs. Obviously it would be awkward and unnecessarily difficult for centaurs if they were forced into the dorm rooms.

At the Academy it was not necessary, nor was it even encouraged for the students to live together, it only invited conflict, lovers quarrels, and even unnecessary deaths. But it was allowed, if they wanted to.

Many of the professors and teachers at the NAAA let the students make most of their own decisions, as long as they attended the lessons regularly, and any reason for absence was suitable. So it really gave the students a large amount of freedom in their lives, and education. This suited the three allies quite well. The independence would allow them to pursue their own interests and plans as they saw fit, they just had to make sure it balanced well with their schoolwork. And they were all confident they could make this happen.

The three entered the dormitory building, it was a plain looking interior to go along with the plain exterior. It was a simple lobby, with a front desk that no one appeared to be at, but it did have one of the rock slabs that they had been required to 'sign in' with their magical signatures. It contained a diagram of the building, and rooms that were already chosen by students were glowing a red color, unoccupied and unchosen rooms were a green color.

Finding a cluster of three rooms on the third floor they each tapped their wands to the room on the diagram. Markus would take the room in the middle of the other two. By arranging their rooms like this not only would they be closer to each other should they need something, they would be able to put a wardstone in Markus's room and charm, spell, and enchant it so that it would extend it's more powerful wards would be able to cover Warren and Shadowknife's rooms as well. This would be beneficial to all of them, having the wards cover all three rooms and then adding their own individual protections, and then even possibly adding their own to protections to the rooms of the others would make their dormitories possibly the best warded and protected in the building. The building itself also had latent wards that were turned off for the moment, besides basic privacy, secrecy, and structural wards.

The wards around the building were fully charged, in the subbasement level and roof of each building on the True Campus two powerful crystals were filled with pure magic, and runic arrays on the ground near them allowed them to be activated to bring the wards to full power in seconds. They could all be activated remotely, by the Headmaster, and a few others, depending on the building. The wards around some of the other buildings were different, some always active, such as in the multiple potion labs and experiment rooms. Those could be activated to contain any sort of explosion or catastrophe inside the building. The various bloodmagic chambers were all like this as well.

Ascending up four floors the three located their rooms, and began their preparations. It was Sunday, they had all day and night before the classes began tomorrow. They had filled out and turned in their desired classes, they would receive their schedules sometime in the night, by some magical means.

Arriving at their rooms they split up briefly, each going into their own empty room and preparing it as they saw fit. The rooms were all fairly sizeable, with a bathroom attached, no kitchen area, and a good sized closet for any of their needs. But it was completely bare, all of them were, it was up to the students to configure and arrange the rooms, the only rule was it must be reasonably safe, and that they should not interfere with the structural integrity of the walls or building itself.

If a student felt they needed more space they were welcome to try the space enlarging magic, very similar to the magics used to copy and remove land from the mortal realm, but much simpler. It was still very difficult, and complicated. Besides, the rooms had plenty of space.

Markus conjured some temporary furniture that would last him about a week or so, he would conjure permanent furniture once he was completely recovered and at his full magical power. He conjured a simple bed, desk, chair, and that was all he did for now. Cygnus, who he had concealed the night before with some powerful invisibility charms that allowed him to stay wrapped around his shoulders and still unseen. They did not want anyone seeing him just quite yet.

Setting himself down on the bed Markus sighed heavily, he was exhausted still, but it was just now hitting him how much his life had changed recently. He had had nothing constant, staying a year here, a few months there, and his education had been spotty along the way, but decent.

Now he did have a constant, multiple constants, in his life. He would be at this school for the next three years, possibly more if he wished. And he knew his allies would stand by him, they had sworn to do so, and he hoped he would have even more allies and friends soon enough.


	30. Chapter 29

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

The first chapter to my second story is up, go check it out, leave a review. This chapter will be some background info, meeting new people, going to classes for a bit, and getting settled really. Read and Review for me y'all.

Blinking his slightly pale eyelids Markus slowly returned to consciousness. Waking up for the day was not the easiest process in the world for a vampire, especially not a magically exhausted vampire, but he could feel the magic pumping through him now, more magic than ever before. It was now three days into term beginning, and his core had replenished itself, now it was working on replenishing the new space inside of the primary core with new magic. The same was true for his secondary core. Markus had been sure to schedule lots of meditation for his first few days, and had made sure to get plenty of sleep as well as drink blood regularly.

Sitting up he reached for the goblet of animal blood that was under a stasis charm on his night stand. He had conjured some more temporary furniture over the last three days, and would be conjuring permanent furniture today, at least some of it.

As he finished the goblet of blood he reflected over the past three days. He had received his schedule, as had Warren and Shadowknife.

They had all gotten placed into the classes they had requested, and it went as follows:

Markus: Bloodmagic, Necromancy (Advanced), Necromancy (Basic), combat (muggle and magical), offensive and defensive magic, mind magic, and basic warding classes.

Warren: Bloodmagic, Animagus discovery and development, muggle combat and weapons, wilderness survival courses, and mind magic classes.

Shadowknife: Intro to Disguise, Intro to Forgery and Counterfeiting, Intro to Concealment, Intro to Deception, Intro to Persuasion, and mind magic classes.

Markus had the most rigorous schedule on paper, with seven classes as opposed to the five classes that Warren had, and the six that Shadowknife had, but in all honesty the most rigorous course load would probably be Shadowknife's. He was not only expected to do well in all of his classes, which would be difficult, especially in his Introduction to Persuasion class, but also create and maintain a network suitable for espionage and cloak and dagger type assignments or missions that would potentially be coming his way in the future. The Introduction to Persuasion class would teach basic Speech Magic, or the art of imbuing magic into one's voice while talking. This was usually used for compulsion or minor memory altering charms, and would be quite handy to have a solid grasp of.

Getting dressed for the day Markus put on a set of pure black robes that were not too ornate, but nor were they too plain. They were fitting of a vampire of royal blood, but not too obviously aristocratic. After all, only a few people knew what his surname was, and he would prefer to keep it not strictly hidden, but if no one asked he would not volunteer the information. That was strictly good business, he was not in the business of revealing more about himself than was absolutely necessary, especially these days, and especially in this place.

Markus held no illusions that he was in a veritable vipers den of potential danger while he was at this school. It would be very easy to slip up and make even more dangerous enemies while he was here, and he knew he would have to be cautious to not offend any or many people, but also not seem weak in front of anyone at all.

Finishing getting ready for the day Markus looked at himself in the mirror, he seemed more alive than he had been the past few days, which was an odd thing to say, considering he was dead, well technically undead. He figured it was the magic coming back to him, making him more powerful than ever before, and it still needed to fully settle in his body. He estimated another two days before he was at his new more powerful full potential, magically speaking.

And that estimate of two days was why he had scheduled a bloodmagic chamber three days in advance. He would have the two days to gain and stabilize the last of the new magic inside his core, and would also have a few days to allow the bonds and bridges connecting his soul with Warren's and Shadowknife's to finish completely solidifying and stabilizing. Markus was looking forward to adding more to his bloodmagic arsenal, it had been simply too long since he had added anything.

Exiting his room Markus looked backwards to the wooden perch he had conjured, this time permanently actually, for Cygnus to wrap and coil himself around, should he wish to. Cygnus had actually been exploring all around the Academy's 'True Campus' as they called it, and Markus had not really seen much of him for the past few days, and that was how it was likely to be for the next few weeks while Cygnus familiarized himself with the new area.

Turning back Markus walked back into his room and grabbed his bow that he had set upright near his bed, he had nearly forgotten that he had his combat class directly after breakfast, and they were going to be starting basic archery. It was very similar to the combat and weapons class Warren was in, except it was more magic based. They would be starting archery today, according to the professor, a hulking, muscular man by the name of Brian Moore he went by Professor Moore to his students, and was akin in spirit to a U.S. Marines Drill Sergeant, according to some of the American students at the Academy. He enjoyed yelling, and making his students do exercises as punishment, and as part of class itself.

But Markus would come out of it stronger, and more adequately prepared for the combat he was sure to face in the coming years, and even coming weeks. He had talked with Warren and Shadowknife, they had all agreed to put off their attack on the Silver Star supply depot for about a month. They had not even begun to put out feelers to see if anyone would join them, and they would have to carefully select who would join them, if any one at all volunteered. It would be rather dangerous, and any volunteer, except the werewolves, would not have a very strong reason or incentive to go along and risk personal injury and possibly death over such an unnecessary encounter. But they still planned to go along with it, on a slightly scaled back time frame.

In about a week the three of them would start the first of several scouting and reconnaissance missions to determine the exact location of the outpost, its ward and the strength of those wards, how many recruits and knights were there, and any other useful information they would need to plot their attack.

And during these missions Markus would be using the cartography spells he knew to create a map of the area, albeit probably quite a crude map, but hopefully adequate for their purposes.

Again Markus was getting ahead of himself, he thought, as he made his way down to the cafeteria on the ground level of the dormitory building. The cafeteria room was actually quite impressive, seating around two hundred and fifty for breakfast and dinner the students were expected to eat at one of the other eating areas if the pleased, or this one. House elves made the process of feeding over a thousand students spread around campus much easier. If not for the house elves it would surely be quite difficult, or quite simple, they would simply require all students to eat at the same time, at the same place. But at the North American Academy of the Arcane the students had more freedom than that, the professors and staff recognized that not all students were the same and had the same needs, some had different sleeping or eating schedules, and the school, while not bending over backwards for each individual student, the school tried its best to make accommodations for as many as they could, on some basic level.

Entering the cafeteria and pouring himself another goblet of blood Markus looked around, he was one of the first people there, except two other vampires, quietly observing him from the corner of one of the tables not too far away. Sighing as he rose, goblet in hand Markus stood to walk over to their table.

The two vampires at the table were twins, members of the Ivanov Clan, grandchildren of Alexander Ivanov, who was closest friend and ally to Felix Drakul, the vampire who created Markus, in a sense. He had turned Harry as a toddler, and later broken the bonds that hid his vampirism.

One of the last things Felix had told him to do was to contact these two vampires, and then Felix had dropped off the grid for Markus, he was completely incommunicado. Markus could not even sense him across the bond they shared. This suited him just fine, he was able to hide his thoughts and secret plans for longer this way, Felix would probably be able to just rip the information from Markus's mind, but he had no reason to, and Markus was not keen on giving him any reason to.

Approaching the two Markus sized them up. They were twins, one boy and one girl. The boy was about average height, with clear muscle definition, brown hair going down to about his shoulder. His steely grey eyes were focused, they had snapped their full attention to Markus the second that Markus had stood from his seat. The girl was slightly shorter than average for their age, but was no doubt one of the most beautiful vampires Markus had ever seen, she had long brown hair that flowed in locks over her shoulders, down near to her waist. She had the same steely grey eyes as her twin brother, and like him she had snapped her gaze and attention to Markus as he came closer.

Goblet in hand Markus continued to get close to the two, undaunted by the cold stare they were both giving him. The two vampires in front of him did not intimidate him at all, despite the latent power and magical strength he could feel just below the surface inside them. No. He was not intimidated because he could not be intimidated, especially now. He could simply not afford to show weakness in front of these two already powerful vampires, who were part of the powerful Ivanov Clan, who ruled most of Eastern Europe, and all of Russia, at least the vampire portions of those countries.

The two vampires that he now stood in front of Markus were sizing him up as well, he knew that they could feel his admittedly substantial power, compared to his peers and those in their class. He knew that the two vampires in front of him had the potential to be great and powerful allies to his cause, but he knew little about them. They could prove bothersome to say the least, if they did not agree with or at least feel neutral towards his goal.

He would have to play a tricky game with these two, and he would have to play it well.

As he seated himself directly across from the boy vampire he set his goblet down on the table and introduced himself, "I'm Markus Drakul, I was told to make contact with two vampires of the Ivanov Clan while I was attending the Academy, I presume those two are you?" Markus did not like the formal way that vampires were expected to speak to each other. There was not really a strict or rigid guideline as to how vampires should act around each other, and many used this for their own benefit. More powerful vampires would use it as an excuse to attack weaker vampires almost constantly, they would just say the less powerful vampire had disrespected them, and deserved whatever had happened to them. Markus just tried to throw as many fitting words into each sentence as he could, vampires loved to hear themselves talk, and he could act like he was no exception, if it could benefit him.

As Markus was speaking he noticed a quick flash of recognition go through both pairs of grey eyes in front of him, before it was quickly hidden again, they had recognized his last name, and the significant weight it carried among vampires.

"That would be us, I am Corvus, and this is Evelyn, we were told, by our grandfather, that a vampire in our class would be approaching us. He did not say it would be a Drakul." The boy, Corvus, seemed intrigued that a member of the Drakul line was sitting just across from him. Both he and his sister had met Felix on a few different occasions, and seen him passing through a handful of times.

"And how exactly did you inherit that name, Markus?" The girl, Evelyn spoke now, inquiring as to how and when Markus had been turned, they had no knowledge of any member of the Drakul line, except for Felix. They had thought Felix to be the last.

And that was one of the reasons Markus did not really give out his last name, no one had asked him yet so he had told no one except Warren and Shadowknife, and now Corvus and Evelyn.

"I was turned as a child, when my life was in great danger and Lord Drakul happened to be nearby. He turned me, but since then I was lost, my vampirism bound behind powerful, ancient magics. I was raised away from Felix, as a simple wizard boy. I have broken those chains now, and I am what I am." The eternally melodramatic speech was beginning to grate on Markus, despite the fact that he was the one spouting all of it. But still, it was fine this way, he told the story without revealing an excessive amount of information about himself.

"Bound? Your vampirism was bound?" Evelyn, who seemed to be the more lighthearted of the two asked Markus, who simply nodded.

"And what do you want from us?" This was Corvus again, he knew that Markus would eventually want something from them, but he was duty-bound to hear him out. Evelyn and him had promised their grandfather, Lord Ivanov, that they would meet this vampire, and if they felt like it they could provide assistance or help. If they felt the need or want to do so.

"I just wanted to introduce myself for now, and I inquire that the two of you keep an open mind regarding myself, I suspect we will be in contact regularly from now on, if that is agreeable."

"We can do that, and we are agreeable to staying in contact. We are always open to new friends or allies, Markus."

This was Corvus again, he seemed the more serious of the two twins, and also seemed to be their spokesperson.

He did not rise, but before Markus stood Corvus extended his hand out over the table, and shook Markus's hand.

Rising from his seat Markus once again grabbed his goblet of blood and began to walk back to his own table, while the twins began a quiet conversation, under a light privacy charm Markus felt go up as soon as he turned his back on them.

That had gone well for Markus, they had seemed open minded and proficiently surprised at his revelation of being part of the Drakul line. What he was not expecting, however, was for Corvus to acknowledge him as equal when he shook his hand. By shaking his hand Corvus had been able to tell Markus that he could sense the power in him, and thought that it was equal or close to equal to his own.

Of course, they could be deceiving Markus, but only time and careful observation would tell.

The cafeteria had filled up slightly as they spoke, more of all the new students filing in and getting their morning meal.

Finishing his goblet of blood as he neared the table he was originally sitting at, before his brief introduction to the Ivanov's, he sat back down. Warren was already there, and Shadowknife was just now coming through the door.

Quickly falling into conversation and friendly banter the three would have much to talk about that evening, when they would all gather inside Markus's room after their classes.

The meal passed quickly, and Markus was about to rise once more and leave the cafeteria to go to his combat class, located on a good sized field on the other side of campus, when he met the steely grey eyes of Corvus. Nodding towards each other, mutual acknowledgement, Markus left Warren and Shadowknife behind to finish their meals, neither one had a class for another hour or so.


	31. Chapter 30

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

My longest chapter ever, I think. Might be wrong. C'mon people let's get some reviews going up in here. It'll be fun, I promise. Read and Review y'all

The sun was not even completely up for the day, and Markus was already exhausted. His combat class had indeed started archery that day, a brief fifteen minute introduction, and then they had begun the 'real' lesson that day, according to the professor.

Markus had spent the last hour ducking, diving, and dodging arrows being fired at him by his classmates. While the arrows were tipped with flat rocks instead of sharp tips they were still enchanted to hit harder and fly faster. The class had been divided up into two groups, half the class on one side, and half the class on the other, and they had been given arrows to use with their own bow if they had one, or a bow provided by the school.

Markus already had his own bow, and he was at least adequate at archery, or so he had thought. He had continued to believe he was good at archery right until the first arrow bounced off his skull, leaving a harsh bruise on his scalp, and a pounding ache in his skull.

He, just like all of the other students, except for the single centaur in the class, had been surprised. They had been split up, and had parted ways, with the instructions that they would be doing small scale war games against each other, using only the bows and arrows they were given. Any outside aid, use of magic, or use of any other arrows besides the ones they were given were grounds for disqualification and punishment. They were to simply fight each other using the bows and arrows until no one was left standing.

What they did not know, and were uninformed of until they figured it out on their own, was that their professor, Professor Moore, was hunting them down, one by one, on each team. He was an admittedly intimidating man, with a muscular body that was tough and conditioned after spending decades at war in various muggle and magical conflicts. He had thick ropes of scar tissue covering his tree trunk like arms, and loved nothing more than crossing those arms over his barrel thick chest while he yelled at the students to do better, hit harder, or to run faster. He was the typical Drill Sergeant personality, and judging by the old uniform he would supposedly wear he had in fact been in the muggle military at some point. Which military, and which conflicts he had been a part of Markus did not know, the rumors seemed to end with the fact that he was in the military at some point, and had seen extensive combat.

It was his arrow that had made Markus's brain bounce and shake side to side when it impacted his head. Falling to the ground, Markus had grabbed at his already throbbing head, and steadied himself on his knee as his vision swam. He had not even seen nor heard the student who had shot him, which was fairly surprising considering his enhanced senses, and how new this was to the students.

Before their 'war games' ,as Professor Moore called them, had started they had been ushered into a small forest that Markus had not seen when he first looked down onto the campus. It must have been hidden behind some of the buildings, he reckoned, but he was or at least he had been fairly confident in his view of the campus being the entire thing. They had been led into the forest, told to split into their groups and go to separate clearings opposite each other, maybe a mile or so apart, and wait. And so they waited, coming up with a plan and also practicing shooting their bows, until the bell chimed, telling them it was time for battle.

Stumbling up, still dazed from the blow to his head Markus was somewhat surprised he was still conscious. Picking up his bow from where he dropped it when his hands had shot up to cradle his what felt like fractured skull, he staggered to a tree and looked around.

He could not see where the arrow had come from, and was confused. He could see his half dozen teammates, who had all watched him go down, they were on high alert, arrows knocked with their fingers shaking as they searched and scanned for any enemy. Markus remained confused until he looked in the direction the arrow came from, this time looking up into the trees.

He saw the crooked grin of Professor Moore just as he was slinking off into the canopy of the tree. And that was when he understood, the Professor was going to teach them a lesson, he would teach them all a lesson. And it would be a painful, possibly humiliating lesson.

And two hours after the 'war games' had begun they were over, and Markus was correct, it had been quite painful, but thankfully at least not humiliating. The centaur student was the only student who had even stood a chance, however slim, against Professor Moore. And that student now had three shattered ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and was had passed out a while ago. A few of the other students were gathered around him, having nursed their own injuries, and were healing his.

While Markus and about a dozen other students were familiar and proficient with using bows and arrows the centaur had been the only one who had any type of combat training or experience with the weapons. Professor Moore had easily knocked out student after student on each side, in the class of twenty four. He stood in front of them now, a grin on his face very similar to the one he wore when Markus had seen him disappear into the tree tops, almost completely unscathed, except for some mud on his olive drab colored combat robes.

"Tomorrow we will be doing the exact same thing! Be prepared." Moore chuckled as he said this, both he knew and the students knew that they would not be prepared, they would not be prepared at all. But he was of the opinion that the best time for training was in the field, and seeing as he could not bring his students to an active war zone, at least not the new students, possibly some of his older students in the more advanced Tactics and Command class, but not these. So the mock war games against himself and each other would continue to be the students main activity in the class. He sighed contentedly, he loved having new students under his tutelage. They would either drop out of his class, or come out better for it. And none in this batch seemed like the drop out type. This was good news for him, and bad news for them.

Trudging back to his room with a still pounding head Markus was finally able to meet up with Cygnus. Cygnus had been familiarizing himself with the area, and was now traveling with Markus back to their room in the new students dormitory building.

He had pretty much just taken the one injury to his head, but also a pounding blow that hit his shoulders, it had not been one of Professor Moore's arrows. It had been another student trying to hit the professor, and when he dodged the arrow sailed straight through the empty air where he had been standing and rammed into Markus's shoulder. The professor had given them an earful about 'situational awareness' and the very real dangers of friendly fire on a battlefield, and Markus had resolved that the next day he would have his team wear something to identify themselves, possibly a bandana or something. He would figure it out later, right now he was stepping into his room, and letting Cygnus slither down his arm he began to take off his robes, leaving them where they fell and getting into the shower.

He was thoroughly covered with blood and muck, and not just his own blood. It had been an exercise in self control to hold back the animalistic urge inside him that rose up when he smelled blood, especially magically charged blood, being spilled. He would have to get some sort of steady blood supply while he was here. While the school provided animal blood at each meal that was not enough, it would be enough to sustain them for a few weeks at a time, but the vampires of the school needed real human blood. Markus had a few ideas, but for now he would wait and sort out the problem later, he had managed to trade with another vampire student for a couple of complex potions that Markus had stored in his trunk, for a half dozen bottles of muggle blood.

Muggle blood was not very expensive on the blood markets, and Markus liked to have somewhat of a supply built up, should he need it for any reason. He did not drink this blood, instead storing it in a small chest, that was specially enchanted with stasis charms and runes to preserve the blood as long as necessary, up to a year before the boxes charms and runes would need recharging.

Stepping out of the shower and waving his wand over himself he was almost instantly completely dry. Levitating his dirty and grimy robes he had worn during combat class into the hamper to be processed and washed by the quite helpful house elves at the Academy, Markus changed into a set of looser robes, still black, but not the same style. Tight fitting robes were typically only used in combat or training, unless one preferred the appearance. Markus was fine with wearing whatever he picked up, whenever he picked it up, but that was not so for many vampires, especially those who had been turned as children, and raised in vampire society. Like the formal speech it was a part of vampire life that Markus felt no need to adhere to, probably because of his unique situation of being turned as a child, and then raised as a normal wizard, but also like the formal speaking Markus was willing to conform to the societal standards, it would not do for him to stick out and be labeled a 'bad' vampire for not following vampire traditions and standards.

Leaving his room, with Cygnus still inside planning to sleep away the day while resting in the sun, Markus went to his Basic Necromancy class.

While his schedule would always, or at least almost always, begin with Combat classes in the morning which gave the students time to shower and redress if they chose, but the rest of the classes were on a random schedule, it was decided about a week in advance. Many of the professors and employees at the Academy were also avid researchers, or held other positions in the magical or muggle world that took up their time. This lead to the class schedule being decided a week a head of time each and every week, so that it could be built and based around when teachers had to be absent and for how long they would be gone. Some professors and teachers did not have to leave the campus very often at all, not that would require them to miss teaching their class, but some of the others did. It made it difficult for the students sometimes, but they adapted fairly well, usually by the middle of the term the new students would be acclimated to it.

Once again leaving the dormitory building Markus set off onto the campus, this time heading to the northern portion. That was where most of the Necromancy, death magic, bloodmagic, and soul magic classes took place. The entire northern portion had special wards around it that would contain and seal _in_ anything that went wrong. These strong wards were also on each building, and inside each building they were on every floor, hallway, and room. They were all very powerful wards, they were designed to be strong and long lasting. They were recharged or replaced as needed every six months, and occasionally more would be added.

While it may seem like over kill to have so many failsafes and wards to lock anything that went wrong in the northern portion back inside the northern portion it really was not. The magics taught and practiced on that part of campus were some of the most dangerous and volatile ever created. An experiment or project, or even a simple lesson or ritual could quickly get out of hand and explode with massive amounts of damaging and destructive magic being released. Many students lost their lives experimenting and trying to push themselves too far into those branches of magic, and the school was unwilling to risk the entire campus on one mistake.

Markus and all of the new students had been informed of these wards, they had already had one session with a tour guide, who was one of the older students who had volunteered, where they had walked around the campus in groups and been able to ask and have their questions answered. Several more of these question and answers and introductions to the campus were scheduled for the coming weeks. It simply helped the new students transition into the new environment, and to ask anything that they wanted answered.

But just being informed about these wards and feeling them were totally different. This was the third day of classes, and each time Markus passed over the ward line running along the northern portion, which was several times a day, he still paused for a second and would take a deep breath.

He could feel all of the magics around him, from the powerful defensive and locking magics inside the wards, all the way to the tendrils and wisps of the powerful and alluring magics that were coming out of the Necromancy building. Breathing in the pure aroma that all of the sickly sweet magic around him brought along Markus was content. He kept walking onwards to the group of buildings devoted to Necromancy.

Each branch had its own large building, which was in truth more like a small complex or compound, to itself. Bloodmagic had one, soul magic had one despite being one of the lesser pursued courses of study, even at the Academy, death magic had one, Necromancy had the largest one, the only remotely close second was the bloodmagic compound, because both Basic and Advanced Necromancy were in the same complex of buildings and labs. In the northern portion several smaller potion labs were also there, built to withstand brewing and creating more volatile potions than the regular labs were equipped to deal with, should something go wrong.

The school had decided long ago that it was best to have all of the most volatile and explosive magics in one section of the campus, where they could all be monitored and shut down quickly if necessary. Of course while there was always the potential for disaster and explosions when working with magic at all it was much easier to mess up a delicate bloodmagic ritual and explode yourself and the entire building than it was to botch a simple potion or charm, or even many offensive or defensive magic spells.

So the whole campus was simply safer this way. It was a good thing to have it all contained if something went wrong and no one doubted or disputed that.

Stepping into the customary red brick building, it seemed like all of the buildings on campus were red brick, or older grey stone, Markus worked his way through the hallway and up the stairs. The Basic Necromancy class was on the uppermost floor, and would be his first academic class of the day. Warren and Shadowknife were probably just now finishing their first classes and moving onto the second, his Combat class was about twice as long as the regular academic class periods, sometimes longer or shorter depending on how angry they had made Professor Moore. Some of the older students that Markus had talked to during lunch the day before swore that he had kept them for over seven hours one day, because he felt that the entire class did not have enough discipline or respect for him. He had certainly fixed that among the older students. A few still started to shake slightly if they happened to make eye contact with Professor Moore for a second too long.

Reaching the upstairs classroom Markus brought one of his journals, this one dedicated to Basic Necromancy, and his writing supplies out and set them on his desk. They were still in the theory part of the class, and they would be for the next month or so until they continued the theory, but with intermittent exercises and training with the application. This was true for most of the classes, while some of the oldest students were jumping straight into application mixed with theory, or pure application, most of the younger and new students would be doing theory work for a while. It was boring for some of the students, but Markus loved learning about magic and how powerful it could be.

Settling down for class Markus readied his writing supplies and journal as more students came into the classroom, joining him and the four or five other students scattered around the room. The professor would arrive soon, probably.

—

Sighing as he left the Northern Quarter, as he had found out it was called, Markus was very ready for the lunchtime meal, which for him would consist of goblet after goblet of animal blood. He never realized that the amount of blood he was drinking was above average, he would just drink when he could feel it was time to. He could cut back, or hold off from drinking the blood, but what good would that do him when it was readily available? He could ration it himself if was necessary, but it was not at all necessary. But he never even realized that it was an above average rate of consumption, and frankly if he had realized he wouldn't have cared.

Markus would have just assumed that it was his secondary core, the core enabling him to use the vampire magics, that was trying to grow. Secondary cores, at least in vampires, went through several 'growth spurts' so to speak, usually when the vampire was young. These 'growth spurts' gave more magic to the secondary core, and overall resulted in more powerful vampires. Because they tended to only happen when the core was young this gave vampires an advantage based on the aged they were turned at. A child turned would continue to grow and age until their mid twenties or so, and their cores would grow as well. Puberty usually triggered a secondary core growth spurt among young vampires, and a couple more could be expected as they aged.

This gave those vampires turned as children, as Markus, Corvus, and Evelyn had been, an advantage over other vampires their age. If a wizard boy was turned at age sixteen they would still go through some, but their secondary core and usually even primary core would be behind that of a child turned sixteen year old vampire. The secondary core regulated and started these 'growth spurts' on its own, usually kick started by puberty.

As Markus had already gone through puberty, but his secondary core had been locked away from his body he had never experienced these 'growth spurts' with his secondary core. While he was already considerably powerful as a vampire, especially now that his secondary core had been filled to its new maximum potential, Markus was now going through the first 'growth spurt' of his secondary core.

It would not increase his power overnight, well technically it would, but it would be unnoticeably small affects day to day. The entire process would take a few months, most likely, but at the end of it he would be more powerful as a vampire. His primary core was still vastly larger than the secondary, and due to this small amounts of magic would flow from primary to secondary, being transformed into bloodmagic to help build the secondary core up to where it should have been if he was raised a vampire. This first 'growth spurt' of his core would also serve to trigger the following couple, in due time.

While this would make him more powerful, as a vampire, he was still not near up to par with the vampires in his age group. They still outclassed him by far, and it would be that way for the foreseeable future, most likely. His magic and secondary core were simply doing their best to bring the secondary core power levels up to the same point where they would have been should he have gone through the 'growth spurts' of the cores at the correct time.

Make no mistake, while Markus was a powerful wizard and would be a powerful vampire many vampires, even in their year, would be more powerful than him. Corvus and Evelyn come to mind, they had been turned as children, and raised by one of the oldest and most powerful vampires around. They were certainly more powerful as vampires than Markus, and that was another reason why Corvus shaking his hand as equal was important. He probably sensed the vampire magic working through him to bring his core up to par, at least somewhat up to par.

Markus, no matter how powerful he became as a vampire, no matter how much his secondary core made up for lost time, would not be as powerful as a vampire as he could and should have been, had Dumbledore not interfered. While the bloodmagic enchantments had not harmed his secondary core it's growth was slightly stunted, which thankfully was offset by being able to feed off of the Horcrux inside of him, which made the secondary core smaller than it should have been. No matter how much that core tried and succeeded at enlarging itself or strengthening itself Markus would still be at a disadvantage when it came to the other vampires, and vampire magics. Sure he could make up for it, and did make up for it, with his primary core and his budding skills and abilities, but the fact remained that if Dumbledore had never interfered Markus would have been raised as a powerful vampire, his core strengthening and growing because of the magical growth spurts, and also extensive and rigorous training that he no doubt would have undergone under Felix's tutelage and mentorship. This would only enrage and upset Markus whenever he though about it, so like his secret plans he kept this hidden away, but he did not hide it consciously. His own subconscious knew that it would be best if Markus did not know quite yet, it would only push him to make rash decisions considering Dumbledore, who still believed Harry Potter was dead, and had no reason to even suspect that he was alive.

And Markus would allow Dumbledore to believe that, right up until the precise moment he struck the fatal blow. He would allow Dumbledore to believe that Harry Potter was dead right until Dumbledore was on the verge of death. He hoped that it would break the old man in his darkest hour.

But Markus was thinking of none of this or anything even remotely similar to these ideas, he was currently preoccupied with the conversation he was currently having with Shadowknife. His goblin friend and ally had sent out a letter to his contact in the goblin black market inside his home stronghold, located and hidden deep somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Shadowknife was expecting a return letter anytime in the next day or two, and would be sure to inform Markus of any developments. Warren held no such connections that would be useful, but that was perfectly okay with Markus. Warren was a powerful werewolf, and a very driven individual. This would potentially make the werewolves, at least the ones in their class and their age, respect him. The older ones who would be able to thrash him severely and soundly would probably not care about him, if they even noticed him more than another werewolf walking the halls and around campus. This respect, however, from their peers would make him accepted into any pack he wished to choose, which was unlikely that he would choose any, it was still good to have their respect should he need or want it.

Each finishing their meals, consisting of the school lunch or animal blood they all went their separate ways for the rest of the day. Markus and Warren had already seen each other in their bloodmagic class, it was the class right after Markus's Basic Necromancy and right before his Advanced Necromancy that day. Shadowknife had opted to not take any bloodmagic classes, he indeed had no classes on the Northern Quarter of campus. Warren only had the one class there, but Markus had three. He was, however, done with those classes for the day. He still had his Offensive and Defensive Magics class, which he had managed to land himself in the second OaD class that was taught, while Warren was in the first OaD class. Markus would see both Shadowknife and Warren in their Introduction to Mind Magics class, which they were all doing quite well in, but that did not mean a whole lot as it was still the first week of classes. His Introduction to Warding class would be later in the evening, it took place after dinner each day this week.

Leaving the cafeteria and each going their own separate ways they agreed to all meet up in Markus's room to discuss a more detailed plan and course of action for securing their three rooms with various wards and enchantments.


	32. Chapter 31

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

IMPORTANT SHIT HERE READ THIS CRAP I seem to have lost most of my motivation for writing so expect less frequent updates. I still have lots of ideas and plans, just no motivation at all to actually write it out. reviews are always nice ALL I GOTTA SAY. PipeLad OUT

Shadowknife was already inside Markus's room,waiting, when Markus arrived himself. He was sitting in the chair behind the crude desk that Markus had not had a chance to replace yet, slowly spinning around in circles. His back was to Markus when he had entered, and he had made no obvious sign that he had heard or could tell that Markus had entered the room.

Suppressing a grin Markus concentrated on drawing his magic out of his primary core and into his hand. Sensing that he had gathered a sufficient amount of magic into his hand he slowly and deliberately waved it. The chair that Shadowknife had been sitting in instantly disappeared, dumping Shadowknife onto the ground in a very upset pile of limbs and surprise.

Spitting fierce curses in the native goblin language Shadowknife snapped his wand up to bear, despite still being crumpled on the floor. After all the goblin still did not know what had happened. His eyes widened as he recognized Markus's chuckling face he fired off a curse in Gobbledegook.

Deflecting the curse into the wall with his quickly drawn wand, and watching the curse knock a fist sized hole clear through the walls of Markus's room into the walls of Warren's room Markus spoke, "Relax, it was a joke."

"Wasn't funny, ass." Shadowknife was still obviously upset, but Markus could tell his goblin friend was not truly angry.

"Why are you here early, Shadowknife? We didn't agree to meet until later tonight, when Warren gets here." Markus had not advanced into the room and had helped Shadowknife up to his feet.

"Letter from my contact, I was here rereading it when you vanished the chair." Taking a few steps and bending over to pick up a folded piece of parchment from the floor. Creasing the folds and dusting it off Shadowknife concealed it in his inner robes, apparently Markus would not be reading it. This made sense really, Shadowknife would use his albeit very small connection network, but he would obviously keep the identities of his contacts and informants secret and safe.

"I now have a communication crystal that will allow me to communicate with him more openly, and much faster than by post." Markus considered this for a second, it would give them a basic connection in a black market that they could use, which was good news. It would at least present them with an open door for more connections or business opportunities that could potentially prove beneficial for Markus and his friends.

Shadowknife continued as Markus sat on his bed, "He is willing to fence and procure stolen or illegal items for me, for a fee. Transportation of anything we wish to sell, with exceptions for extraneous circumstances, will be our job, however."

Still, this was good for them. They now had an avenue for gaining the capital that would doubtlessly be needed when they began their campaign against their various foes and enemies. Those plans had not been enacted yet, they in fact only had a single plan that would be put into action against their enemies in the near future. That would be their assault on the Silver Star outpost that they were still only in the beginning phases of planning for. The third friends and allies were still not remotely capable of assaulting the outposts by themselves, they would need more people, and they still had not started reconnaissance on the area and the outpost yet. That was scheduled to begin the coming weekend.

"How the hell did you get in here, Shadowknife? This room is warded, keyed to me. I haven't keyed you into them yet."

Shadowknife just smiled a little bit, looking quite pleased with himself. He never gave Markus an answer, instead settling for a smug look. The wards had not been all too hard to bypass, Markus had only set up basic wards so far, but more were planned. In a few weeks Markus's, Shadowknife's, and Warren's rooms would all be very well protected by many different wards and enchantments, and many of those would be linked together, drawing strength and magic from each other, therefore making them stronger and more resilient.

Checking the time with a quick _tempus_ spell Markus realized that Warren was due to arrive at his room at any minute. Feeling and hearing a knock on the wards and door respectively Markus waved his wand and the door swung open revealing a slightly disheveled Warren. His last two classes had been Muggle Combat and Weapons, and Wilderness Survival. Both were application based classes, with little theory. This made the classes rather tiring, especially when the Wilderness Survival class would do lessons on avoiding being tracked and hunted themselves, when the students would be pitted against each other in a contest to track and hunt down other students.

Entering the room and sitting down heavily on the couch Warren ran a hand through his hair, "Y'all get anything done today?"

Shadowknife did not answer, except for a simple nod. Markus did not hear the question, he was focusing on a conjuration spell. Finishing the spell with a small flourish of his wand a dark blue bolt of magic shot from the tip of his wand and hit the floor near Shadowknife.

Appearing to slowly knit itself together as Markus moved his wand back and forth and up and down an ornate wooden chair manifested itself. It was ornately carved, but was sturdy and made up of a dark, deeply polished wood. This chair would be permanent, it would never disappear or vanish unless it was destroyed or magicked away just like any other chair. While it was a more complex and difficult process than temporary conjuration it was worth it, Markus would never worry about having to re conjure or summon up another chair, and Markus just liked having real furniture.

With another wav of his wand everything he had already placed on his desk levitated upwards a few inches, and with one more wave of his wand set themselves down on the floor in precisely the arrangement they had been in on the desk, just on the floor.

Repeating the process with the desk Markus focused slightly harder than he had with the chair, while Warren and Shadowknife conversed with each other quietly while watching Markus conjure his furniture.

The same dark blue bolt of magic hit the floor in front of the new chair after a moment of focusing and gathering his magic. Again the deeply polished wood slowly appeared and seemed to knit itself together, starting from the base of each of the legs. As the magic slowly worked itself upwards Markus monitored it, and adjusted it to be exactly how he wanted it. He had had to do the same with the chair, it would just take longer with the desk.

Warren and Shadowknife had just finished a discussion about the best way to skin wild game, Warren was passionate about hunting, and as a werewolf always enjoyed fresh meat. Shadowknife's father had been one of the hunters for the goblin stronghold he was from.

"Shadowknife's friend sent a letter, we've got someone who will taken any stolen goods or anything illegal we might obtain during our travels." Markus and Shadowknife continued to simply inform Warren on the basics of what Shadowknife's friend could allow them to do.

"What do we do now then?" Warren had now sprawled himself out over the couch, Shadowknife over the bed, and Markus was testing out his new chair. "We plan wards now, and the assault later tonight. We can obtain a wardstone through Shadowknife's contact, but we will need to acquire funding first." Markus had an idea on where they could get that funding. He would have to present it to his friends.

They would need gold, several thousand galleons worth. Markus had considered accessing his accounts in Gringotts, but as he had been declared dead by the British Ministry the goblins had put his vaults on lockdown, only accessible to the Potter family. Before his 'death' any family or person authorized by the active Lord Potter would have access for a pre-determined amount of time as long as also pre-determined conditions were met and held. This was not so anymore, only Potter's could access the admittedly sizable Potter fortune.

Markus could not access these vaults. Technically he could access them, but the goblins would be required by law to report it to the British Ministry if the vaults were accessed, and surely Dumbledore would hear of it immediately after the Ministry found out.

The scrutiny of Dumbledore was something that Markus did not need right now, nor did he ever need. Even the knowledge of his continued life and existence Markus was quite keen on concealing from his old headmaster.

"We must steal it. Either the gold or goods we can sell for gold, but we must steal it." Shadowknife evidently had caught on to the plan. Markus nodded, and both watched Warren for his reaction. A slow, thoughtful nod greeted them. Warren was onboard with the idea at least.

"Okay. So we steal it then. What do we steal? How much do we need?"

"I've got an idea. It will be crude, however. It will be quick money, muggle money, but that can be converted." Markus said, "The school has a port key office, yes?"

Shadowknife answered him from his relaxed position on the bed, "Yes. Free port keys to major cities within a reasonable distance, all students can use them no questions asked."

The port keys were regularly used by vampire students, but they were offered to all students. The Academy understood that it's students would need to leave the campus sometimes, and sometimes it would be quite often. The Portkey Office on campus was necessary because it would be an ordeal for the students to have to trek or traverse through the Magical Reservation each time they wished to leave for any amount of time. So the school supports and funds their own Portkey Office for the students and teachers, should they need it.

"One of the cities that they offer portkeys to is Las Vegas. The city is notorious for it's gambling, and over all debauchery. I seem to know where this is going." Shadowknife spoke again,_ so he ha_s_ caught on,_ Markus thought.

_"_Are we gamblin' or are we strong armin' 'em as they come out the casino?" Warren had caught on as well, it seemed. The strong and muscular werewolf would probably end up being quite essential to the plan.

Smiling gently and putting on his most stereotypical American Southern accent Markus replied, "We'll be strong armin' 'em as they come out the casino. All drunk and full of gamblin' winnins'."

Warren glared lightheartedly, he was not a very serious person, and it was nice seeing Markus not brooding and plotting over his various foes. After all they were just teenagers, constantly making all of these plots and plans was not suitable for teenagers no matter how mature they seemed on the surface. Kids must have time to be kids, and out of all of them Markus had been denied that opportunity the most. To see him lightheartedly joking with his new friends was a good sign.

It was a simple and crude plan. But Markus liked the simplicity of it, it was nothing huge that would get them noticed by anyone important, and it would provide them with some quick money and possibly he would be able to feed off of some of the muggle's and even bottle some of the blood. It would be child's play for them to rob muggles. They _were_ wizards after all.

"So after we get the money for the wardstone by going through with this we will plan the wards more thoroughly, yes?"

"Yes, Shadowknife, I'm not sure how much we will be able to make and how quickly, but I propose we go sooner rather than later, much sooner."

"Markus, Shadowknife, we're still doin' recon on that Silver Star facility this weekend, right?"

Thinking for a moment before both nodding towards Warren they all grew quiet.

Shadowknife broke the silence, "We should go to the city tomorrow."

Markus replied, "Piss on tomorrow, we can go tonight. Why shouldn't we? It's muggles, not giants or elves or anything magical. Do you really think some drunken muggles will stop a werewolf, vampire, and a goblin from robbing them blind?"

"I don't reckon they could do a damn thing 'bout it at all." Warren seemed to like the plan more and more as they discussed it further.

"If we are going to go to the city tonight we should leave in a few hours. We need to give the muggles time to drink and gamble to their heart's content. Are either of you good at memory charms?"

Both Markus and Warren responded to Shadowknife's question with shakes of their heads.

Shadowknife spoke once more, "Doesn't change our plans much. A good quality, blank wardstone will cost about fifteen hundred galleons. At least fifteen thousand U.S. dollars." The exchange rate for American dollars to wizard galleons was about ten to one, but it fluctuated by a few knuts day to day.

Warren seemed impressed. He did not know that a wardstone would cost so much. He vocalized his opinion, "That's a good sized chunk of change. Think we can make that in one night?"

"If we get lucky, yes."

"Sounds like a plan, we need to get ready. And we also need to get a portkey to the city. Leave at midnight?" The last part was a question Markus directed towards Warren and Shadowknife.

"Yes."

"I don't see why not."

Shadowknife and Warren exited Markus's rooms to do their own preparations, and meet back in Markus's room later.

As they left Markus looked around his room and sighed. He had much work to do, not before he went to rob muggles of either whatever they had left after gambling or whatever they had won gambling, but he just had much work to do in general.

Tipping his chair back on its back legs and propping his feet onto his new desk Markus saw the contents from his old desk still sitting on the floor. Levitating everything back into it's exact arrangement as it was on the old dest, in order to avoid any confusion or looking for lost or misplaced items. Still leaning back on the chair with his feet propped up Markus began to grin. Grinning Markus began flicking his wand towards every piece of furniture that he had not yet replaced. Shooting bolts and jets of the deep blue magic that was associated with transfiguration and conjuration.

Seeing all of his old furniture disappear and the new furniture slowly weave and knit itself together was fascinating for Markus. He sometimes forgot how much he loved magic, how much it had changed and improved his life. Before he had been little more than a servant to his own family. And now here he was, a vampire. A lord of the night, king of darkness, a hunter who fed on blood, a true wolf among sheep. He had gone from being the cook, butler, and punching bag for his big oaf of an uncle and cousin to plotting and planning against organizations that spanned across the entire globe. From being under the subtle thrall and yoke of the powerful wizard known as Albus Dumbledore to hiding his continued existence from the man, in order to further his schemes against Dumbledore.

Lost in his thoughts of his past, present, and future Markus did not notice when his furniture was complete with forming itself. He did not notice when Cygnus slithered into the room, even when Cygnus hissed towards him in greeting. He did not notice when Shadowknife and Warren knocked on his door. He did notice when they knocked on the wards quite hard, making them shake and quiver, and making one or two of the basic protection wards manifest themselves in the visible spectrum.

Spells were manifested in the visible spectrum when they were cast, and some magic would give off glows or auras sometimes. When enough magic was present in an area it would sometimes become visible under the correct conditions, such as the massive amount of wards and magic present in Felix's base, Ayer's Rock, in Australia. The same was true for the inner ward lines of the NAAA campus. Wards would often manifest themselves, like a shield spell would, moments before they reached their breaking point. Where shield spells were usually always manifested in the visible spectrum wards were not, but they were there none the less.

That was why Markus was worried when he was snapped out of his semi-meditative state by seeing the wards that he had cast into the walls start to shake and vibrate quickly.

Firmly believing that he was under attack Markus leapt from the chair he was sitting, ran around the desk at incredible speed due to his vampiric magic, and leveled his wand at the door. Flicking it once upwards and moving fluidly from the upstroke of the flick to the first spell he was casting he narrowed his eyes. He saw two figures in the hallway, and was already reacting.

"_Sanguinem Fulmen."_

By the time the door was opened from the flick of his wand the red bolt of destructive bloodmagic was halfway through the hallway, and barreling down the hallway towards whoever was attacking him, or so Markus thought. It was not unheard of at all for students to attack other students on campus, but Markus could think of no reason for anyone at all to be attacking him three days into the new term, he had made no enemies at all at the Academy, and it was highly unlikely if not downright impossible that any of his other enemies could reach him here, or even knew he was here at the Academy.

His internal body clock was that of a vampires, it was highly attuned with the night. He knew that it was midnight, or a bit before. Why would anyone who knew who or what he was attack him in the middle of the night, when the sun that weakened vampires was gone? Why would someone do that? He did not know, but he was willing to find out.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Warren and Shadowknife had met in the hallway outside of their row of rooms. It was about fifteen minutes before the stroke of midnight and they figured that Markus would be ready, he always seemed to be ready for anything.

Shadowknife and Warren had each known Markus and each other for less than two weeks, but they were fast and close friends already. Each knew that they would gladly perish for the others, should it be required of them. Such a close bond was rare, especially one formed so quickly, but it was not without base.

The bond and bridges that had formed connecting each of their souls to the souls of both others were very small and subtle, but they were there nonetheless. This increased and amplified the feelings of camaraderie and friendship among their group. The level of friendship and even brotherhood that existed among the three was significant, and while it was true that the bond affected this it merely sped up the process that would occur naturally among them.

They would have eventually gotten to this point in their friendship, but it would have possibly taken months or longer, but it would have happened. With the bond between their very souls it was accelerated considerably. Which suited each one of them just fine.

Conversing for a moment before knocking on Markus's door and wards they began to wait. They waited a moment for Markus to at least open the door, but when he did not they shared a puzzled look. Knocking more firmly this time they stood back.

"Together?" Shadowknife seemed slightly impatient, he was used to everything running on schedule and being on time, and this was throwing him off.

Warren nodded and together they raised their wands. Each looking down the hallway and checking for people they were satisfied to see no one around.

Each performing half of the wand movements in a slightly complex but well known two person spell used to break wards.

Many wizards and witches knew it, and especially many of the students attending the Academy, who tended to be the best, brightest, most cunning, most ferocious, and most powerful.

Working in tandem they both finished the movements at precisely the same time, coming to a stop with the tip of each of their wands inches apart from each other, a bead of magic gathered at the end of each wand. The vibrating magic on the end of each wand suddenly jumped forward and combined. A beam of magic formed and jumped directly into Markus's door.

The wards started to shake and quiver slightly. They would not last very long, they were just simple and basic wards that Markus had set up a few nights before. They had both been expecting Markus to at least then realize that they were at the door waiting for him, it was nearing midnight after all.

The wards began to shake and quiver as they entered the beginning stages of falling completely.

Sharing an even more puzzled and slightly alarmed look the two dropped the spell, cutting off the beam of magic into the door immediately.

The door flew open to the inside, and the goblin and werewolf immediately saw a blood red bolt of magic flying down the hallway, towards exactly where they were standing. Shadowknife ducked, dropping his wand down his sleeve, and bringing his gun up to bear. Exhaling and looking down the barrel Shadowknife squeezed the trigger, waited a second, and squeezed again. Two orange stunning spells flew down the hallway in a return volley to match the red spell that was just a quarter of the way away from the two.

Warren reacted just as quickly as Shadowknife had. He used his already aimed at the door wand to flow into the strongest shield spell he knew, that would adequately protect both himself and Shadowknife.

His shield spell took hold with seconds to spare before the red spell struck it. As the red spell hammered into the hastily cast shield spell it shook and vibrated. The spell behind it crashed into the shield and the shield nearly shattered. Feeding more magic into the shield Warren had an idea.

"Markus! It's us, god damn it, man!" Warren was frustrated with what was happening, and he did not want it to become known to the rest of the dormitory to know about exactly what was happening there.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Markus! It's us, god damn it, man!"

Markus snapped back into reality and suddenly realized what he had done. He could not stop the spells he had already cast, but he did immediately cease the one he was in the middle of.

He ducked behind the corner, the two spells from Shadowknife's gun slammed into the corner a second after he ducked behind them. It was a little bit too close for Markus's comfort, but he deserved it after all.

"Shite! Shite! Ah fuck! Damnit! Sorry! Fuck! Damn!" Markus was sufficiently apologetic, at least Warren thought so.

Shadowknife began chuckling, an odd raspy affair with his goblin voice, and Warren joined him as the goblin and werewolf entered the room.

"What was that for, by the way?"

"I was meditating. You damn near broke my wards, I reacted accordingly to being under an attack."

"How often are you under attack like that?"

"Not for a while actually. Are we ready to go to the Portkey Office?"

"If you've got your pent up aggression under control, Markus."

Markus grumbled as Warren continued to make jokes at Markus's expense. Warren and Shadowknife both found it amusing, Warren was just more vocal about his amusement.

Moving downstairs from their rooms the three made their way into the lobby like area of the dormitory building, it held a map of the campus that would display the name of the building when tapped with a wand. They located the Portkey Office, about a quarter mile from their dormitory building, and the three of them set out.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-The three companions landing together in an abandoned back alley in Las Vegas. A drunk muggle dropped his bottle in surprise.

Markus grinned as he stalked forward in the alleyway, towards the muggle man slumped up against the wall, trying to slur out an intelligible conversation. Apparently this was too difficult for the man, instead he bent over to try and recover his dropped bottle.

Markus had reached him at this point, and quickly slit the man's throat with his wand, focusing a very special cutting charm that manifested as just a small bead of grey magic on the very tip. It acted like a knife and sliced whatever it came into contact with, with limits.

The charm was a favorite among assassins and spies, it was very useful for stealthily killing sentries or guards and hopefully remaining undetected. Markus had learned how to use it while he was in Ayer's Rock.

As the drunk muggles blood was shooting out of his slashed neck Markus removed a bottle from one of the pockets of his robes and held it to the wound. Markus set to bottling as much of the drunken muggle blood as he could. He would be saving this blood, vampires could only become intoxicated if the chemistry of the blood they ingest was intoxicated as well. So Markus would not be drinking this blood tonight, he would make sure that he found some non intoxicated muggles to feed off of and bottle. The animal blood would not do if his vampirism was to jumpstart itself up to hopefully average levels. But Markus was still unaware of that, and would remain unaware of it as well.

Satisfied with the amount of bottled blood he had obtained from the drunken muggle Markus dropped his body to the grimy ground in the alleyway.

Warren was stretching his arms out, he seemed eager to get started with their 'strong armin'' people that night. Shadowknife was wandering around the alley with a look of faint amusement plastered across his face, every now and again he would pick some piece of rubbish or garbage up to examine it and then toss it aside.

Shadowknife spoke, "How do they let some of their own race live like this?"

"Hey it ain't like goblins don't have any poor or homeless. We all do."

"Oh well, shall we begin?"

Shadowknife, Markus, and Warren all stepped out of the dark alleyway they were in, they were dressed in suitable muggle attire for the occasion, clothing that would let them blend in and not stick out.

As they stepped onto the Strip Markus felt like he was seeing Diagon Alley for the first time all over again. Bright flashing lights covering and illuminating every square inch of space they could, men and women wandering and stumbling down the sidewalks, shouts and laughter and music coming from every casino.

"Let's set up shop here I guess. Shadowknife you go into the back of the alley, cover us with your gun. Warren and I will go get the kind people."

With a nod Shadowknife slinked into the darkness in the back of the alley and they could faintly see him raise his gun as he took up a position behind one of the dumpsters that seemed to be radiating a filthy smell.

Satisfied that they were sufficiently protected by Shadowknife both Warren and Markus walked over to a group of muggles they say just exiting a casino. Sharing a look between the two of them Warren shook his head, they would not want to try and rob an entire group at once.

Switching directions they went the other way down the street, walking through the crowd. Two men, holding onto each other for support as they tried to walk down the street, bumped into Warren's shoulder as they passed.

Making eye contact with Markus and nodding he grabbed one of the muggle's arms and steadied him while Markus grabbed the other's.

"Thanksh', guy." The more able to speak muggle slurred out his thanks to Markus and Warren for helping steady them and walk.

Guiding them into the alleyway they gently deposited them against the wall, half slumped over and barely conscious. Warren and Markus searched through each of their pockets, finding their wallets and emptying all of the cash they also found various casino chips.

The muggles did not have much on them, just a few hundred dollars total. Taking their semi-expensive looking watches they tossed the two men back out onto the street, Markus and Warren had simply acted like the muggle men stumbled into the alley and that they had simply helped them control their falls. In their drunken state they didn't even notice they had been robbed of everything they had left after a night of gambling.

Repeating this process for muggle after muggle Markus and Warren slowly accumulated a quite large pile of muggle American money, and various valuables in watches, necklaces, bracelets, wedding bands and what not they had a sizable amount of capital or potential capital amassed.

Everything had gone as planned that night, at the end of the night they had just under half of the muggle money they needed, but they had a few thousand more in casino chips, and yet even more thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. They might have made enough to purchase the wardstone, they would have to sell the jewelry first, and redeem the chips.

They only had a few hours before the portkey was due to send them back to the Academy, but the plan had gone off without a hitch that night. Shadowknife had not had to intervene on any of the robberies, and Markus had gotten his share of blood to save, both intoxicated blood and pure blood that would last him a while, he might even be able to stockpile some of it in case of an emergency.

They redeemed the chips for a few thousand dollars at the various casino's, bringing their grand total up to about ten thousand U.S. dollars, and then portkeyed back to the Academy.

Each returning to their own room they entrusted Shadowknife with the muggle money and valuables all locked up in an enchanted lock box that Warren had in his room.


	33. Chapter 32

BEGINNING PROBABLY SOMETIME TOMORROW I WILL BE REVISING THE STORY. I am not sure how the process will work with the site, but I will be going through all of the chapters individually.

Many will probably be combined, all will be edited.

Again please read and review. Every review is appreciated, and I do my best to fix whatever is pointed out.

It is unlikely that anything will change for a little while, maybe a few weeks, but I will be working on it.

I shall try to keep up with updates to the story through this process.


	34. Chapter 33

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

this chapter doesn't cover very much at all. read and review.

It had been a week since the group had had their little fundraising event and classes were just finishing for the day. Dinner would be starting soon for the new students, and then they would be able to do whatever they wanted. Tonight the three companions would be beginning the opening phases of another project of theirs, the assault on the Silver Star outpost.

Shadowknifes associate in the goblin black market had been able to cut them a deal; ten thousand U.S. dollars for the wardstone, and Markus himself had spent some of his own money and left over cash on some special parchment also acquired from Shadowknife's associate. This parchment was specially enchanted and produced to accept cartography spells. Markus had a special longterm project that he wanted to get underway as soon as possible, he was already compiling all of his maps and information that he already had. It could prove to be a useful project, but it would be rather time-consuming and also downright impossible for him alone to complete, or even him and his friends alone. He would have to dedicate many hours to this project and even then he would definitely need help.

Walking towards the cafeteria area Markus wiped some sweat from his brow. He had just had a practical lesson during his Introduction to Offensive and Defensive Magics course. The students had been practicing various curses and shield spells during mock duels. Despite being mock duels they were taken very seriously by the students and teachers, and they were a grueling work out for the students. The professor enjoyed casting some rather nasty curses and spells at the students, particularly when they seemed distracted by the lesson or their practice, just to keep them on their toes. Dodging, blocking, and healing himself when he was hit with curses was exhausting work, especially towards the end of an already tiring and exhausting day.

Markus would be meeting up with Warren and Shadowknife later that night in order to finally cast the more powerful and more permanent wards over their three rooms. This would allow them to be more open in their discussions, they had been not discussing the most sensitive subjects at all even if they were in their rooms. The privacy wards they would cast would be more than enough to secure the rooms and hide any conversations or discussions they might have.

The wards would be mainly wand based magic, with the most basic of vampire warding magic incorporated into it. Eventually the three would incorporate many other kinds and sources of magic into the wards. Warren was planning on researching and progressing with threadmagic during all of his downtime due to his somewhat lighter schedule, and that would allow them to tie in threadmagic wards to the regular wards, to make them stronger and more resilient. Threadmagic wards were powerful and hard to break, but the strongest and most powerful wards were usually created by stone and metal magic.

Shadowknife knew the most basic metal magics, but nothing defensive or ward based. He only knew what most goblin children learned in their basic educations in their strongholds. The three of them would probably need to learn those magics on their own, if they did want to learn them at all. They probably would learn the basic principles of them at some point, but not get too far into the specifics of the theory and application behind those branches of magic.

Entering into the cafeteria Markus looked around, scanning the room for either of his friends. It appeared that they were not there yet, but Corvus and Evelyn, the Ivanov family vampire twins, were there.

Locking eyes with Corvus for a moment and raising an eyebrow Markus was silently testing the waters with Corvus. Corvus gave a slight nod, and then whispered something to Evelyn. Her face lit up in a brief, but bright smile for a second before it vanished again. Markus considered that, Evelyn seemed excited that he was going to be seeing them again.

Walking over to the other two vampires, with a goblet of animal blood that he had mixed with some of his own store of muggle blood in his hand, Markus approached the table. Sitting down he eyed the vampire twins, who had been conversing between each other and sipping from their own goblets of blood. From what Markus could smell and sense the blood inside the twin's goblets was muggle blood, with a slight portion of magical blood mixed into it. This, combined with the fact that most of the vampires at the school were merely sustaining themselves on animal blood and occasional muggle blood. Markus himself was drinking animal blood mixed with muggle blood, but it appeared that the Ivanov twins were drinking muggle blood mixed with magical blood.

This was important because the magical blood that was mixed in would make the twins' cores grow slightly larger and more powerful, very very slightly, each time they consumed magical blood. The effect would be unnoticeable to them, but over time, provided they continued drinking the magical blood, but it would give them a slight edge. It was exactly how the oldest vampires had become the most powerful. Some of their power came with their sheer age and core size that came with along with that age. But some of it also came from the magic they absorbed and would utilize, through growing their cores, when they drank magical blood.

Sitting down with the twins Markus took a sip from his goblet of blood.

"Evening Corvus, Evelyn." He simply greeted the two vampires in front of him, they were at the same table that they had all been at when Markus had first introduced himself to the two vampires.

"Markus! How have you been?" Evelyn certainly did seem excited to see Markus.

"I've been good, Evelyn, and yourself?" It was only polite to make conversation, after all this time he did not have anything outstandingly important to discuss with the two. While Evelyn did seem quite excited to see him Corvus seemed indifferent. He was possibly also excited to see Markus, but he was just better at hiding and disguising it than his sister was.

"Good, we both enjoy it here." Evelyn seemed to be speaking for both of them, and as Markus looked to Corvus for confirmation he saw him nod.

"Markus, I got a letter from my grandfather. Something about you and your friends doing something concerning the muggles in Vegas? That's all he mentioned to us."

"Mmm." Markus was very confused about how Alexander Ivanov had heard of his doings in Las Vegas, he was just one vampire, a very young vampire at that, and Alexander Ivanov was the most powerful, influential, important, and probably busiest vampire in all of Russia and the old Soviet satellite nations. How the hell had he found out? How much did he know? How much did Corvus and Evelyn know? He was now rather upset and slightly confused.

"I was hunting for muggles, I wanted to bottle some blood and feed that night. Warren and Shadowknife came along. We had decided that we would relieve some of the muggles from their gambling earnings and jewelry. So we did."

Corvus nodded. He didn't particularly seem to care either way whatever Markus and his friends had been getting up to in their own time. "I don't particularly mind, but my grandfather seemed curious about it. I don't know how he heard of this money 'relieving.' It matters little to either myself or Evelyn."

"But why would you have to rob the muggles, Markus? Felix is a very wealthy vampire, he has amassed huge fortunes of gold and valuables. Why would you be robbing muggles, Felix is supposed to be supporting you. That's what most vampires do." Evelyn seemed actually curious. Corvus nodded as well, that was indeed how vampire society worked, especially among the older vampires and their society.

"What? I haven't seen or heard from Felix for a couple weeks now, and before that I barely ever saw him. I don't get anything from him, we barely speak."

Corvus and Evelyn seemed surprised at that. Corvus nodded and 'hmm'd' to himself. This was a curious matter, it seemed in 'high' society of vampires that the creator would at least do something to protect and ensure that the vampire they created would either survive or have a decent chance of survival.

"Why? Should he be helping support me?" Markus wasn't overly worried, but he did not truly grasp that anything was wrong. And indeed it was not a huge issue, but it was just odd, exactly like how Felix going incommunicado was odd.

Evelyn nodded as Corvus sipped his goblet of blood.

The table fell quiet as the conversation lulled. Markus was thinking of what he had just learned, it was good to know, he thought, but it was not inherently life-changing knowledge that he had obtained. It was just interesting to know.

Corvus and Evelyn both sipped their goblets and seemed to be holding a silent conversation between their subtle looks and slight facial expressions towards each other. Perhaps they were truly having a silent conversation between themselves, Markus thought, magical twins, especially vampires, would occasionally be telepathically linked more than the average level between magical and even vampire siblings. Telepathy could be learned, but it would only come along with in depth research and practice into the mind arts.

Finishing his goblet of blood and standing Markus nodded towards the Ivanov twins in front of him. Locking eyes with Corvus as he nodded back to Markus and also locking eyes with Evelyn as she gave him an odd look. It was slightly curious, but mixed with something else that Markus could not tell quite exactly what it was.

Markus was about to exit the cafeteria when he walked by Warren, who even after a long day of class and training did not seem to be worn down at all.

"I'll be in my room. Tell Shadowknife."

"Ah, okay. You okay, Markus?" Warren could obviously tell that Markus was preoccupied with something, he just did not know what it was that was bothering him.

"Fine." A short and terse answer was the only response that Warren received.

"We still meeting in your room later, Markus?"

"Yes." Ending the short conversation between himself and his friend Markus exited the cafeteria.

Walking around the campus for a little while casting various cartography and analyzation spells as he walked and wandered. They would fit into his massive project that he was planning to begin as soon as he could.

Eventually wandering back into his room Markus sat on his bed and pulled out a journal. Hissing a greeting to Cygnus he held a quick conversation with his magical viper. Markus reviewed the notes that he had in the journal, and cross checked those notes with the relevant sections in a few books he owned and books he had retrieved and borrowed from one of the dozens of libraries on campus.

He would be starting the massive scale cartography based project soon. He would be enchanting a few amulets with a few certain spells. These spells and amulets would be linked to the special pieces of parchment that Markus had purchased through Shadowknife's associate. Wherever the amulet went it would record the area as a basic map onto the parchment. The map would not be very detailed, but with time and skill it could be further advanced and made more detailed and developed. More spells and functions could later be added, once the basic maps were created.

Markus had gotten the idea from the Marauders Map. Indeed if enough effort was put into it Markus would be able to replicate the effects of the Marauders Map, but on a much larger scale. A global scale. This was why he would need help. Lots of help, if he was even to ever hope to get this project anywhere near off the ground. It would be a time consuming, though not particularly difficult to pull off. Markus had several ideas as to how to streamline or make the process more efficient and less time consuming. Provided the amulets were done soon he would be able to start the next weekend, with the Silver Star outpost, and even some of the larger scale aspects of this project.

Hearing the door knock Markus stood from his bed and went to let Warren and Shadowknife into his room, they did have to begin the warding, after all.


	35. Chapter 34

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Huge thank you to JoeLawyer for the time put in reading and reviewing each chapter with incredibly helpful comments and suggestions. Expect big changes soon. Leave a review, they are massively helpful.

Markus invited Warren and Shadowknife into his room, he could see that Shadowknife held in both his hands a package wrapped in brown paper, the sort one would find in a muggle post office.

This cheered him up slightly, he was still bothered by what Corvus and Evelyn had told him earlier, about Felix. Beginning a magical project or exercise usually cleared his mind, or at least distracted him for a while.

"Wardstones in, huh?" Markus inquired.

Shadowknife answered him with a nod in his typical Goblin fashion, and set the package down onto a clear space on Markus's desk.

Entering behind slightly behind Shadowknife, Warren closed the door and nodded a greeting to Markus.

All three of them gathering around the desk in order to get a good look at the package as Shadowknife unwrapped it they were all rather excited, especially Markus. It would be a good thing for all of them to have their powerful wards in place, and Markus was planning on having quite a few styles and varieties of wards.

They would have anti-intruder wards, protection wards, alert wards, hopefully thread magic wards, possibly some stone or metal magic wards from Shadowknife, intense emotion fueled wards provided by Warren, special vampire based wards from Markus, eventually even death magic and necromantic based wards, and those would not even be all the protections for their rooms.

Warren, Shadowknife, and Markus had already cast their own basic wards over their rooms. The wardstone would tie all three sets of wards and spells together to strengthen them all. If they did the binding ritual between the wardstone and the three sets of wards correctly then Markus or any of them would be able to add or power up any protections that they saw fit.

The ritual of binding would not be overly complicated. It was a simple bit of ritual magic and bloodmagic combined. The ritual needed a few reagents that would slowly be burned, a short chant that needed to be spoken precisely and clearly, and a few drops of blood from each person. That would, in partner with a few spells to bind the rocks that Shadowknife, Markus, and Warren had used to base their wards on, tie all of the wards together.

Each of the three of them had somewhere in their room hidden a rock. A normal, simple rock, with nothing very special about it. The importance of this rock was that all of the wards were tied to it. That was how wards worked, they would be cast in a specific area and would stay there. But they would not stay very long unless they were tied to something. It could be anything, a chair, wall, desk, or a doormat even, anything at all would suffice. But rocks were better suited for that than anything else, it was simply how they were. They were strong and sturdy and the magic inside the wards recognized this. That was why wardstones were the best, it was a magical rock that would allow easy manipulation and maintenance to the wards tied to it, and it would also boost the wards strength slightly.

Warren had gathered the reagents they needed for the ritual while Markus was planning out the ward scheme in more detail and Shadowknife was acquiring the wardstone itself.

It had been a simple matter of Warren leaving the True Campus and going to the crowded and busy market places just outside the portals. He had found the two types of flower that he needed fairly quickly, and had bartered his way into a very good deal.

They needed two specific types of lily flowers. The Fire Lily and Silver Lily. Both were readily available and not very expensive, they just needed a single of each type for the ritual.

"Flowers?" Shadowknife asked, looking at Warren.

Putting the two flowers, one a dark and seemingly glowing red and the other a pale and luminescent silver color, onto the desk Warren responded, "Right here, buddy."

Markus walked a few steps away from the desk and removed the familiar brass bowl and some chalk from his trunk. Cygnus was coiled on one of the bed posts, sunning himself lazily.

"Masssster, are you preparing the wardssssstone now? And what of the amuletssss?" Cygnus hissed to Markus as he drew near.

Markus, who was no longer wary about trusting Warren and Shadowknife with his parseltongue secret, hissed back a reply, "Yessss, and the amuletssss are nearly finissshed."

Hissing a seemingly content noise Cygnus lowered his head and remained silent, it seemed that he just wished to be left in the sun, which was quickly disappearing. Markus was not quite sure how the sun was there because of the completely removed and magical realm that the True Campus was on, but he did not question it. He obviously, didn't care for the sun very much anymore.

Walking back to the desk and setting the brass bowl down next to the flowers Markus mentally reviewed what had to be done in what order for the ritual to be successful. Satisfied that they would be able to perform the simple ritual with no mix ups or accidents Markus nodded to Warren and Shadowknife.

Hovering his wand over the Fire Lily Markus muttered "_Sicco"_ and instantly all moisture inside the flower evaporated and the lily wilted and dried. Repeating the charm for the Silver Lily Markus then put both inside the brass bowl.

Moving the wardstone and bowl to the clear area on the floor in-between all of the furniture Markus arranged them as according to the instructions he had recorded in his journal.

The wardstone was to be in the center of a circle drawn in the chalk that Markus had retrieved from his trunk, with the bowl on the northern edge of the circle. Markus would stand on the southern point, Warren on the east, and Shadowknife to the west.

When Warren and Shadowknife were each in their respective places on the chalk circle Markus crouched down over the brass bowl and cast a weak fire charm. It launched a few glowing embers into the bowl and the two magical flowers began to burn slowly.

No aroma or scent was given off by the burning flowers, but the smoke would rise and fall and slowly gathered itself to the wardstone in the center of the circle.

Markus moved into his position on the circle and the three friends waited a few moments for an adequate amount of the hazy and milky smoke to gather around the wardstone.

Making brief eye contact and nodding to each Shadowknife and Warren in turn Markus crouched down and prepared for the next phase of the ritual.

Slicing a good sized gash into his own thumb Markus smeared said gash across the wardstone. As he did so he used his other hand to bring his wand up, and just barely touch the tip of it onto the stone, pushing his magical signature into the magic of the wardstone.

_"__Et hoc est, quod qui me."_ Markus chanted clearly and deliberately. It would not do to botch such a simple ritual by mumbling or muttering the chant.

This was one of two incantations or chants that the ward required. As the wardstone accepted and registered his blood as payment and his magical signature as master the wardstone itself flashed a blood-red color for a brief moment. The smoke still clinging to the wardstone also flashed a blood-red color a second or two after the stone had. Both settled back into their regular colors and states as Markus rose from his crouched position and nodded towards Warren, who was to undergo the same process next.

Cygnus had been slithering around the circle observing since the three had began the Ritual of Bonding. He knew better than to interrupt in any way during a magical ritual, while it would not be disastrous to interrupt such a simple and rather insignificant ritual in terms of power and magic used, it would still be best to let the three companions focus on the task at hand. He had a list of questions that he would be asking Markus later, number one on the list was if any Parsel magic was going to be going into the wards. Cygnus certainly hoped so, Markus and him had after all learned some during their stay in the Chamber of Secrets.

_"__Et hoc est, quod qui me." _It was Warren finishing his part of the ritual now, Markus watched as the stone and smoke flashed a rather dark chestnut color and then returned to their normal state.

Warren rose and Markus nodded to him, telling him silently that his part of the ritual had been successful. Markus looked to the edge of the circle he was still standing on and saw Cygnus looking around curiously. Markus felt the cut in his thumb knit itself back together, thanks to the vampiric healing abilities he now had. All three, Markus, Warren, and Cygnus, looked to Shadowknife who was beginning to crouch down.

Smearing his blood and giving the stone his magical signature Shadowknife also chanted, _"Et hoc est, quod qui me."_

This time the wardstone and smoke flashed an odd mixture of a black with streaks of pure and shining gold color for a few moments before returning to normal.

That was odd, and Markus would be sure to record that in his journal section devoted to the wards and wardstone.

Not yet rising, but removing his wand tip from the wardstone Shadowknife looked up to meet the eyes of Markus and Warren.

Both crouched down and brought their wands up to the wardstone again.

Touching their wand tips to where each of their blood had dried up and stained on the wardstone they completed the chant in perfect unison and harmony, _"Potestas autem vobis, et nostra defendere_."The chant did not have to be in such perfect harmony and tone as the three had done it in, but it was a basic bit of speech magic that would give the Ritual more power in the end.

As they finished the chant each of the three began pouring magic into the wardstone. It would act as a large battery made up of smaller batteries. Each of the three poured significant amounts of magic from their primary cores into the stone, and also from their unique secondary cores.

They all provided a sufficient 'pool' of pure, regular magic for the wardstone to draw power from, but if they wanted to cast specific werewolf, goblin, or vampire wards or magics on the stone then they would need a werewolf, goblin, or vampire 'pool' of each respective magic to draw power from. So each one poured substantial amounts of their secondary cores into the wardstone.

Channeling and directing their magic into the wardstones for about ten or so minutes until they all had agreed through a silent conversation of facial expression, lip reading, and gestures. They each ceased sending any more magic and once more in unison repeated, _"Potestas autem vobis, et nostra defendere."_

With a blinding flash, not nearly as bright or noticeable as the one at the end of the Ritual of Alliance however, the Ritual was finished.

Markus, Cygnus, Warren, and Shadowknife could feel the magic settling into the wardstone, and they could feel the sheer power radiating off of it in subtle waves.

Cygnus slithered up Markus's arm to his favorite position on Markus's shoulders just as Markus picked up the brass bowl.

The leftover ashes were Vanished away and the bowl was placed back into his trunk. Grabbing a bottle of muggle blood from his trunk as well Markus was satisfied that the wardstone was powerful enough to sustain the wards they had planned.

As Warren and Shadowknife wiped away the chalk circle Markus aimed his wand directly at the hard-wood floor paneling underneath the wardstone.

Focusing slightly and shooting a familiar bolt of dark blue Transfiguration and Conjuration magic into the wood panels directly below the wardstone Markus began weaving and knitting the magic as he had done when he conjured his permanent furniture. He was creating a small compartment in his floor that would be hidden by a trapdoor, which would have many spells and protections of its own on it. This would keep the wardstone hidden, safe, and out of the way of Markus during his day to day activities.

Sipping from his bottle of blood Markus sat down on his bed. Shadowknife had occupied the chair behind his desk, and Warren had taken the couch.

Shadowknife was the first to speak, "That went well."

"Mhmm."

"Sure did." Markus and Warren respectively answered.

Markus's mind was beginning to wander back to Felix, where he was, why he hadn't been supporting him, but most of all, why hadn't Markus noticed Felix's absence and inquired about it? He of course had noticed that Felix was gone, not present in his life very much any more, but why had Markus not felt compelled to ask Felix about it when he saw him, or even ask Corvus or Evelyn when he had arrived at the Academy. Markus should have been bothered by it, from his discussions and quick lessons about vampire culture the relationship between Maker and 'Whelp' as they were usually called, he should have known that it was abnormal and he should have questioned it. Yet he did not do anything of the sort, he had just sort of noticed it and filed it away, and why he had done that confused himself.

As they noticed Markus fall into a sort of trance, deep in his own thought, with a somewhat confused facial expression, Warren and Shadowknife both departed from Markus's room. Warren had told Shadowknife earlier that Markus seemed rather 'off' from their brief conversation in the cafeteria, and now they knew that something was bothering Markus.

Deciding that he could deal with it himself, and that he would know to come to them should he need any help they both went to their own rooms to begin planning their own personal ward schemes, and the wards that would be tied into and over all three rooms. They would cast their own schemes on their rocks, which would then be tied into the wardstone, which would feed the rocks power and magic. The more powerful wards would be tied directly onto the wardstone.

As the goblin and werewolf both left Markus's room Cygnus hissed quietly, "Masssster, what isss wrong?" He could obviously sense that something was not quite as it should be with his master.

"It'ssss Felix." Markus hissed back, drawing out the 'x' in Felix. "He should be helping me, assssissssting me. Yet he isss not, and it hasss not bothered me before now, for ssssome reasssson."

Cygnus looked thoughtful, for a snake, for a moment and replied, "I have heard of a room for meditation on campussss. Maybe you should go there, and meditate and think further."

"I think I shall, Cygnussss. Where isss thisss room?"

Receiving a set of short, hissed directions from Cygnus Markus was satisfied he knew where it was. It was already dark outside, but that did not bother Markus. He finished his bottle of blood and left Cygnus inside his room as he set out.

Most, if not all, buildings on campus were always open, so Markus did not worry about the meditation rooms being closed.

He vaguely remembered one of the older students pointing to a building in the distance on one of the student run tours of the True Campus, and saying that personal meditation rooms were available inside of it.

Walking for a little while Markus soon came up to the building. He entered inside, and greeted the witch at the desk inside the lobby of the building.

"Are any rooms available?" Markus inquired, the front desk witch would know, and be able to direct him to an open room.

"Can't sleep? Yeah, there's a room open, go through the door behind me, down the hallway, third door on the right. Candles and incense are in the room, labeled." The witch was very helpful to Markus, and seemed quite cheerful. Looking closer at her Markus could see her skin was paler than an average witch's skin and her eyes both lacked something and had a sort of fiery glow to them. So the witch was a vampire, that was why she didn't mind working the night shift apparently.

"Thanks." Markus proceeded to follow her instructions, and soon found himself at a thick oaken door. Opening the handle slowly and pushing the door open he held his wand at chest level, a _lumos_ charm already active. The room was dark, but Markus soon found an activation crystal that turned on the dim lights above him.

It was a dimly lit stone chamber, but it was decorated warmly and comfortably. It was neither too hot nor too cold, and the air seemed fresh, not the typical staleness that would come with a stone room or dungeon. Going to a set of cupboards and cabinets running the length of one wall that were labeled "Candles and Incense" Markus picked out three candles that would burn and release a relaxing smoke that would help him reach a trance. Eventually if he progressed far enough with mind magics he would make his own personalized candles that would work very well for him, and him alone.

Markus used his wand to set the alarm inside the room to 'wake' him when dawn came, and he began settling down into a trance like state as he lit the three candles Markus reclined onto one of the comfortable chairs in the room.

Beginning to meditate Markus fell not quite into his mindscape, but more of a trance where he saw his mind itself.

He was cautious, and he had a bad feeling about what he might find. It was quite easy for a powerful wizard or being to influence or compel someone to do something, or not do something, especially if they were younger or less powerful.

The main question at hand was why was he not bothered by Felix's abnormal absence, and why had he not questioned it, when he knew it was odd? Markus was also planning on performing a rather in depth scan of his magic, including his bloodmagic, primary core, and secondary core. Depending on the outcome of this scan he allow himself to start his bloodmagic rituals again.

Falling into his mind Markus sought out the connection he held with Felix. Searching for a few minutes he found it, a link at the very edge of his mind that was made up of a blood red colored magic.

Deciding what to do he began to sift through the magic as it lazily moved back and forth across the thin bridge it had formed between himself and Felix. It was not quite as strong of a bond as was usual between Maker and Whelp. Whelp was the somewhat derogatory term that the vampires who created another vampire, or Makers, used to refer to the vampires they created.

Feeling nothing out of the ordinary for a while Markus soon began to feel bits of Felix's magic, but not the regular magic. It was a specific charm or spell.

As he familiarized himself with the magic he began deciphering the purpose and intent of the spell. Markus could sense the vague intentions of it, concealing or hiding something, and also suppression. Based on his reading and learning Markus could tell that it was most likely a compulsion charm of some sort, cast by Felix.

This was somewhat unnerving and angering to Markus, he knew that Felix had secrets that he would want kept secret, but the vast majority of any sensitive information that Felix might have had at either his estate they stayed on or at Ayer's Rock, Markus simply never knew or discovered. So most of Felix's secrets were safe on the basis that Markus never even knew them. So that was not it, and taking into consideration the main question that Markus was hoping to answer during this meditation session, it seemed much more likely that the focus of the compulsion charm was to very subtly suppress and inclination or inkling that something was off about the relationship between Markus and Felix, the lack of communication between the two or the sheer absence of Felix.

As he spent more and more time deciphering and observing the spell it became evident that that was the exact purpose and function of the charm.

Suppressing a flash of passionate anger at this discovery Markus quickly dismantled the charm. It was not very hard to dismantle and take apart, despite Felix's power and age. In order for it to be subtle it could not be too powerful, otherwise Markus would have immediately noticed. It was still significantly powerful, an average witch or wizard would have had trouble with taking apart the charm, but Markus was not an average wizard. He was above average in power levels, and he was also a vampire.

As he finished dismantling the newly discovered compulsion charm Markus continued to check the link for any more magic that should not be there. After a while Markus concluded that there was no more magic that should not be there, and began to wander away from the link, but not before building his own subtle walls that blocked out and dulled the link between the Maker and Whelp. He did not like being linked to Felix in such a way that Felix could just send magic down it whenever he wanted. He would have to do something about the link before he could make any moves at all against Felix. Markus was sure that Felix was powerful and knowledgeable enough to kill him using the link between Maker and Whelp, after all that was not an uncommon occurrence among vampires.

Moving away from the link Markus sought out his bloodmagic. It looked similar in form as to how his primary core looked, except it was a pulsing red color. It was directly linked to his primary and secondary cores, but Markus could tell that something was off. It was just not quite right in general. Something was missing, or hidden from him.

Examining his bloodmagic closer Markus could see where it was tethered to his primary core and secondary core, but most of the tethers and connections were in the primary core. He could also see a couple of smaller links and tethers hooked onto something else, something similar to his primary and secondary cores, but he could not tell what it was. It was shrouded in a dark mist of some sort.

Glancing around a little bit Markus went to investigate this dark mist. He had just begun poking around the edges when it began to gather. The dark mist turned even darker, into a pure black color, and quickly gathered and coagulated into a man shaped form. The form gained more definition and detail as more of the mist came to it.

After a few moments of gathering Markus was shocked. He recognized the figure standing before him, he had seen him before, he had battled him before.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

A teenaged Voldemort. Here. Of all places, here. Inside his mind. Fucking great, Markus thought. This was not good, not good at all.

The teenaged boy, dressed in dark robes made of the same shadowy mist that came together to form him, opened his mouth to speak, "Ah, Markus. Pleasure to see you again. You've changed quite a bit from our last, ah, encounter." There was a noticeable snakelike rasp to his voice, but not quite Parseltongue.

Riddle began to circle around Markus, who began circling the opposite direction. They were slowly stalking in a circle, staying opposite each other as they stared and sized up each other.

"It's Markus now. How are you here?"

"Oh, you don't know? I'm here because I'm trapped. Trapped inside you, just a sliver of myself, too large to simply dissipate, too small to possess you. That damn beast has been feeding off of me for years." Tom was pointing to Markus's secondary core, which was every so often flickering itself into a manifestation of a crude and bent over vampire, insane from captivity. That was the physical manifestation of Markus's secondary core from when it had been feeding itself off of Riddle while the vampire and vampirism had been locked behind Dumbledore's blood magics.

"Liar! You should be dead then. Nothing could survive being locked away with my vampirism for a decade and a half." Markus was rather critical and doubtful of Riddle, after all he had faced the man multiple times, always managing to defeat or thwart him somehow. Markus's voice was raised slightly, and he had brought up his wand to bear against Riddle.

Reaching out and grabbing what looked like a wand, but upon further inspection was simply the blackest of black shadows, Riddle raised his shadow-wand to level against Markus.

"You have changed, Markus, but I am telling the truth."

"How are you still here? You're part of Riddle's soul. If my vampirism was feeding off of you you would be gone by now."

"Good observation, I am indeed a part of Lord Voldemort's soul. I've watched your entire life through your eyes, when I wished to, and I've seen all that you have done and all that you have become."

"You're not answering my question, Tom." Markus was getting slightly impatient with the continued question dodging, and it was beginning to show.

"What do you and I both share, Harry? Besides being orphans, a troubled past, and being under Dumbledore's thumb for too long, what do we share? At our very core, what do we have in common?"

Markus thought for a moment, but realization came to him fairly quickly. Raising his wand again in a motion that did little except show Riddle that he was serious and would duel him if he had to Markus replied, "It's Markus. Parseltongue. We're both Parselmouths."

"Markus, Harry, it doesn't matter. That part of you will be dead soon enough. But you are correct. We are both Parselmouths. And what I have hidden from you for years and years, what has sustained me and healed me from that vicious beast," This part Tom spoke with pure hatred dripping in his voice as he pointed at the flickering bestial and starved vampire. "Parselmouths have another magical core. My secondary core is my Parsel core, your tertiary core is your Parsel core."

The second that Markus heard this he flew into a bloodlust and anger fueled rage. A piece of Voldemort's soul had been living inside of him, blocking him off from part of his magic, just as Dumbledore had done with his bloodmagic ritual and binding.

This was unforgivable. Markus was understandably fed up with people influencing him and controlling him like that, first Dumbledore locking away his vampirism, part of who he was, then earlier he discovered Felix had been manipulating his thoughts, and now he found out that not only had Voldemort killed his parents, tried to kill him and his old friends on many occasions, led to the death of his close friend Ginny, and his godfather Sirius, but now Markus learned that Voldemort had hidden part of Markus's magic from him. And he had been feeding off of it! Feeding! Growing stronger while he denied Markus part of who he was, benefiting from withholding what was rightfully belonging to Markus.

"_Eviscero! Sanguinem Fulmen! Eviscero! Discutio!"_ Markus let off a chain of spells, sending them flying towards Riddle.

Batting the first spell aside the second nearly Riddle in the chest, before he spun out of its path. Bringing up a shield against the last two he brought his shadow wand up and quickly ran through a set of wand motions, "_Fumus."_

A dense, magical cloud of smoke appeared between the two, making it nearly impossible for either to see through.

Markus used his enhanced vision to see through the haze and launched another barrage of spells.

Leaping around from spot to spot in order to prevent Riddle from getting a reliable fix on his position Markus never stopped casting spell after spell, curse after curse.

"_Sagitta Apparet. Sagitta Apparet. Fugio."_ Markus was conjuring and launching groups of arrows towards where he could see Riddle hiding behind his shield in the smokescreen.

Tom had quickly realized that the smokescreen was a poor idea, but he had not been able to dispel it because of the constant incoming barrage of spells against his shield. The spells were coming from different locations every time, and were at such a constant rate that he could not pinpoint where Markus was firing from. He could hold his shield almost indefinitely, even though he was taking almost constant hits. Riddle settled down into a battle of attrition, but still stayed alert and focused on the combat.

Riddle realized his he had made another mistake when an arrow was propelled directly through his shield, and buried itself into his left bicep. It was a burning, searing pain, but Riddle blocked it out through extreme Occlumency and focused. He could not let Markus know that his arrow had gotten through the shield, if Markus figured out that the shield Riddle had summoned was only blocking spells then it could be the end of the fight, and the end of Tom.

Some shield spells were only for blocking physical attacks, such as swords or arrows, and others were only for blocking magical attacks. Some shields could block both, provided the caster was strong and powerful enough to withstand the hits. Riddle realized he had made a mistake when he summoned a shield that would only block magic, and that he had made a mistake with summoning the smokescreen. He could not afford any time to dispel and summon a new shield that would block both magical and physical attacks, so he was going to simply not let Markus know that he had been hit.

This did not work at all, as Tom found out. Markus had obviously discovered his success with the arrow, and deduced that the shield Voldemort was using only protect against magical attacks. Tom could tell because the attack switched from the occasional bunch of arrows to nearly all arrows.

The smoke had mostly cleared itself out by now, and was nearly gone. Tom could see Markus summoning dozens of arrows. The arrows all suddenly launched forward with a spoken "_Fugio!_"from Markus.

Gathering what magic he could to himself Tom dropped his shield and waved his wand. The arrows were still about twenty feet from him, and closing fast, when they all burst into flames. Half of them turned to ash immediately, but the other half flew true towards their target.

Desperately waving his wand one more time a few of the arrows clattered to the ground, stopped in their flight, but most of them could not be stopped.

A half dozen arrows still on fire crashed into Tom at different points. He already had one in his left bicep, but Tom felt another tearing impact a few inches below, followed by the searing pain of a burn. He felt identical impacts in both of his thighs, his right shoulder, one into his gut, and one more just below his right kneecap.

That was the third mistake Tom Riddle made during his duel, the first being the smokescreen, the second being the type of shield he summoned, and the third being over confident. He had never expected that Markus would be able to best him, even though he had been able to watch Markus throughout his life whenever he wished. Tom had been too confident in himself and his own abilities, but it was simply not enough.

Collapsing backwards into a sort of sitting sprawled out position Tom was mumbling under his breath, as his life slipped away.

Flicking his ash wand Markus approached, and seeing that Tom was completely and utterly incapacitated Markus tilted the teenaged Voldemort's head back, exposing his neck.

Biting into it Markus began to feed, and as he began to feed it all began to come to him. He was being bombarded with a constant stream of information, much as he had been when he had first had his vampirism unlocked. It was incredible. He could now feel his primary core absorbing all of the power that that portion of Voldemort's soul had held inside it.

He was currently lost inside a fast-forward version of the life of Tom Riddle, up until the night in Godric's Hollow. He was seeing everything that Tom saw, feeling everything that Tom felt, and would be able to access these memories in time.

Locking the vague memories away for later assessment Markus himself simply rolled over onto his back when he was finished feeding from Tom.

It had been a decidedly odd situation. He was inside his own mind, not his mindscape, but his mind. And he had dueled his old arch-nemesis, at least part of his soul, to death. The fact that the battle and carnage took place inside his mind itself guaranteed that Markus would have a migraine level headache for the next few days. He would be relying heavily on occlumency to hopefully dull or block some of the pain, but also pain relieving and suppressing potions. He would likely also have a dull headache until he could go through the memories of Voldemort's life. Markus was sure there was much to be learned from going through those memories but it would be a slow process, unless he could speed it up somewhat with a Pensieve.

He could feel the raw magical power that had been inside Riddle being absorbed into his primary core, it would give him a significant boost in raw magical power. He could also feel his bloodmagic, primary core, and even secondary core beginning to form the connections and links to his tertiary core that held his Parsel magic, connections that would have been formed long ago had Riddle not blocked them from forming.

Markus had been able to speak Parseltongue, but he had unknowingly had his access to the rest of Parselmagic blocked off, but now that problem was solved.

As the alarm in the room went off and snapped Markus back into full consciousness he rose and stretched his arms and legs. It would be dawn soon, he had likely already missed his Combat class. Tiredly rousing himself and exiting the building Markus waved to the still on duty female vampire at the desk. Trudging across campus and making it to the dormitory building Markus made his way up to his room.

Passing a few students in the hallways none interacted with him too much, except for a few nods here and there. Markus reached his room and went inside. Cygnus hissed something to him but he was too exhausted to care. His duel and all night magical scan and meditation had thoroughly exhausted him, especially after pouring out his magic into the wardstone and performing a Ritual of Bonding.

Falling into a deep sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow Markus was satisfied with all that he had accomplished that day. He could feel the new magical power pumping through his veins, and if he was not so exhausted he would be testing out his new potential, but he was in fact too exhausted to do that. He was too exhausted to do anything right now, so he slept.


	36. Chapter 36

p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; font-family: Helvetica;"span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"Rewrite/ Revision of Night Is Long is up, at least the first couple chapters. Check it out, let me now what you think. I hope y'all like it. Read and Review./span/p 


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